Ho'ike
by sammie28
Summary: The 5-0 team must solve the death of a prominent island reporter, whose three-year-old daughter is now a target for what she witnessed.
1. Chapter 1

**Ho'ike**  
>by Sammie<p>

DISCLAIMER: Not mine. If they were, Kono wouldn't be just a pretty plot-mover. Why, ptb, have we still have not seen Grace Park in ANY on-set/filming videos or photos? I've seen more of the individual guest stars than of her! Grr.

RATING: T

SUMMARY: The 5-0 team must solve the death of a prominent island reporter, whose three-year-old daughter is now a target for what she witnessed. (Casefile)

A/N: I'm not creative (I can't do fantasy or sci-fi) and work better in already-set boundaries. (Thus, FF.) One of my favorite episodes of the cancelled-too-soon series "The Magnificent Seven" dovetailed with a "Hawaii Five-0" plotline (evident later). This is a "reboot" of that "TM7" episode.

**This is set before "Ua Hiki Mai Kapalena Pau".**

I've pulled favorite quotes and tricks from books, other TV shows, films, etc. Obviously this borrows heavily from that episode of "The Magnificent Seven" and also borrows a character and a speech from two other episodes; the names of the characters are in tribute to that fun show. I've also snitched a scene from "Law and Order: Criminal Intent".

* * *

><p>"...'Goodnight, light, and the red' - what's that?" The man pointed at a picture on the page, tilting his head slightly to the side so he could look down at the his daughter, sitting in his lap.<p>

"Balloon!" announced the little girl, dressed in a pair of pink pyjamas and snuggled in her father's lap.

The father smiled, tugging on one of his daughter's little blond pigtails as he pointed to the next picture. "What's next?"

"'Goodnight, bears,'" the little girl recited from memory, rather than actually reading. She tucked her oversized stuffed panda under her arm.

"'Goodnight, chairs. Goodnight, kittens, and goodnight, mittens.'" The man paused, frowning, looking up as he heard a car pull into the lot.

The little girl waited, but when her father didn't continue, she turned to look up at him. "Daddy! 'Goodnight, clocks'!"

The man turned back the book for a moment, but rather than reading again, he pulled his daughter up, pausing to peek quickly out of the window. The little girl stared out into the dark, watching the occasional flashes of light and the people getting out of the car. Her eyes settled on a pair of very shiny black shoes, and as she followed the legs up, she saw a shiny thing on the fourth finger of the hand she could see. The wearer was fat and had a round face. "Who's that?"

Her father turned quickly without answering her, picking her up against his chest and maneuvering quickly around the coffee table. Outside, a voice said, "Go around that way."

"Daddy? Who's that?" she repeated as she looked over her father's shoulder.

The father rushed into the darkened kitchen, not bothering to turn on the light. "Don't worry, sweetie. You be real quiet for Daddy," he whispered as he opened the pantry. "Don't make a sound."

"What's happening?"

He started a moment, looking back over his shoulder when he heard another voice coming from the front.

The man reached out of the pantry to the panel of hooks nearby, hooks on which hung various pots and pans, and pulled on the second hook. A wall in the kitchen pantry slowly creaked open, and he pushed his daughter inside, turning on a tiny light along the wall, pointing towards the floor. "Don't come out until I come for you. Don't make a sound."

"Daddy?"

"Be brave, sweetie," he murmured, crouching to her level and dropping a quick kiss on her forehead. "Daddy loves you," he continued, giving her an encouraging smile. "I'll come get you." He shut the pantry wall and then closed the pantry door behind him, leaving her seated alone in the lighted room, listening to the voices outside.

"Holden."

"Get out of my house."

"Not until you talk to me."

"I'm not talking to you here."

"Seeing as you're not going to talk politely - "

"That better not be a gun at my shoulder. Don't even try to threaten me."

"Then stay out of our business!"

"You want to talk, we'll do it at my office. Go. Now."

"I'm warning you for the last time, Holden. Stay out of it."

"You're making a mistake!" The voice was sharper, more desperate, more angry. "Don't do this, Bruce."

"Stay out of this!"

The little girl started when she heard a strong popping sound. She clutched her panda more tightly to herself and looked around her tiny room as feet thundered through the house.

* * *

><p>"Steve." Chin gave a nod as his boss hopped out of his truck. "I know it's your day off."<p>

"Governor calls, we answer," Steve commented as they walked towards the house. "Cute neighborhood," he commented, looking around. "Who's the victim?"

"Travis Holden." Chin held up a copy of the newspaper, pointing at the front page, to the journalist's name. "Major journalist for the Honolulu Star-Advertiser."

"That would explain the call from the governor's office," Steve commented with a grin of understanding.

Chin nodded, smiling back. "He's been doing the series on drugs and his wife's been doing the series on medical technology."

Steve frowned, holding up the paper, at the name. "I've been reading both. Didn't get half of the stuff the latter was talking about." He handed it back to Chin. "Who found the body?"

Chin waved at a young man of little more than twenty who was sitting on the steps to the house, looking a little lost. "Travis Holden's intern at the paper," he informed his boss as he led the man over to where the youth was sitting. "He found the body this morning. Steve, this is Jeremy Kahaloa." The young man quickly got to his feet and shook Steve's extended hand. "Jeremy, this is my boss, Steve McGarrett."

"Sir." The intern tugged his polo shirt nervously.

"Want to tell us what happened?"

"Um...yesterday afternoon boss said he'd be in early this morning to drop off some paperwork," Jeremy started, trying to remember. "He's been working from home the last two days." He paused. "He said he was going out early this morning, so he'd be in before eight to drop off his next article. When he didn't show up at eight, I called."

"He's that punctual?" Steve asked.

"He's a Northeastern haole." Jeremy shrugged, as if that were all the explanation required. Both men chuckled.

"What happened when you called?" Steve asked. An approaching officer was intercepted by Chin, who left, pulling away the officer with the evidence bags.

"Nothing. It rang, then went to voice mail. When he didn't show up by eight-thirty, I started getting worried, so I went to the editor, and he told me to come by. I got here just before nine. The door was closed, but - " he pointed towards the window.

Steve looked at the kid, then stepped off to the side into the landscaped area in front of the house and looked in the window into the foyer. The body of a tall, lean man with short, curly, light brown hair lay sprawled on the floor, half-lying in the living room and half in the foyer. Dr. Bergman and Kono were inside the house, with the body.

"So I called 911," the kid finished.

"You didn't touch anything?"

"I've watched enough cop shows to know not to."

Steve gave him a look.

The kid shrugged.

"All right." Steve gestured to Duke Lukela. "Give a statement to Sgt. Lukela, and we'll take it from here."

Jeremy nodded, then suddenly frowned, looking at McGarrett and then to the cops behind him. "But - I - aren't you going to look for her?"

"Look for whom?" Steve frowned.

"His kid." The young man looked at him, but when Steve gave no indication he knew what the intern was talking about, the kid clarified, "Mrs. Holden - Olivia Holden - is out of town, but she went alone."

Steve frowned, looking at the intern. "He has children?"

"Yeah," Jeremy nodded. "Little girl. She's an only child. I didn't see her in the house and nobody brought her out, and she's certainly not out of town with her mom."

"You're sure about this," Steve asked, frowning.

"Boss brought her along to work yesterday morning. He'd never leave her behind." The intern threw up his hands in distressed frustration. "I - he - " He turned back to Steve, trying to think of something to describe his boss. "He'd never leave her behind," he repeated. "There's absolutely no way. That little girl's his life."

"OK. What does the kid look like?"

"Perhaps - um...two and a half...three feet? Something like that. Turned three years old a few months ago." He paused, thinking. "Blonde. Normally has pigtails. Blue eyes."

"Any other identifying markers?"

"Um - " he thought. "I've always seen her with her toy panda. Large - " he tried to give a general shape with his hands. " - thing."

Steve nodded. "OK, we'll look."

Jeremy looked at him with a worried expression, as if willing him to understand. "Sir, you'd have to crawl over his dead body to get to his daughter," he said earnestly, then cringed at the irony of his statement. He recovered, then said in distress, "But, really, if he's dead - " he trailed off.

Steve squeezed the intern's shoulder steadily, reassuringly. "We'll find her."

* * *

><p>"Ah! You've arrived," Bergman replied cheerfully as Steve came in. "Splendid. Now, as I was telling Officer Kalakaua, what is most interesting about this gentleman's death - "<p>

"Give me a time of death, Max," Steve replied curtly.

"About 9 in the evening, but that will not be certain until - "

"Good enough. Kono, I need you and Chin to organize HPD into a search."

Kono got to her feet, frowning at the grim look on her boss's face. "What's going on?"

"Holden's three-year-old daughter is missing," Steve said in a low voice, then looked around the living room, then pointed to a small photo frame with a beaming little blonde in pigtails. "According to his intern, who found the body this morning," he continued, "there's no way Holden would have left his daughter on her own. That means she's been missing for" he looked at his watch "twelve hours."

"And if she were taken by the guys who killed him," Kono finished, "they could be anywhere by now."

Steve nodded. "I know we gave Danny off today since it's his weekend with Grace, but call him in, at least until we find her. You and Chin get HPD organized into a search. Split up into two groups," he said, counting them off on his fingers. "Half of you assume the kid ran out the back on her own; rest of you, get out an amber alert for anybody took her. She's our first priority."

"What's the kid's name?" Kono asked. At Steve's look, a "caught you red-handed" grin crossed her face. "You didn't ask the kid's name, did you, boss."

"Ask the intern."

"Got it." Kono disappeared out the door.

"Max, bag the body, get it back."

"Aren't you interested in how he died?" Max asked, looking up from where he was kneeling by the body.

Steve stared at him incredulously, taking a moment to recover from the question. "Max, I'm looking for a missing person right now."

Max blinked, as if not quite getting it. "So you aren't interested?" he asked confusedly.

Steve stared at him for a moment, then shook his head in a "I don't believe this" fashion as he turned and walked out.

Max sighed, then patted the body consolingly before leaning down to the man and whispering, "Don't worry. He'll be back."

* * *

><p>Steve trotted down the steps to find Chin talking to Sgt. Lukela. Scores of police officers were on the lawn, each listening to directions and using their phones to take a picture of a large 8x10 photo of the little girl for search purposes.<p>

When he saw Steve come out, Chin broke away. "Her name's Billie. Jeremy said she might have wandered off when she saw something that piqued her curiosity, so that's what we're hoping she's done."

"Hoping," Steve replied doubtfully.

"She's not the type to wander," Chin supplied. "so, not likely."

"Where's Kono?"

"Around here somewhere."

Steve, directed by a HPD officer, found her in the backyard. She was standing at the back of the mid-sized house, frowning; her hands rested on her hips, and her head was tilted to the side as she looked at the house. "Something wrong?"

"We cleared the house," she said in a frustrated, puzzled tone, her eyes still fixed on the house.

"And you didn't find a child."

"No. And we went through the closets, attic, everything," she said in frustration, staring up at the back wall even as she recounted the matter in an absent tone. "Went through the house a second time, too."

"So she most likely was taken," Steve concluded.

"Yeah, most likely," she murmured, and started turning away, a disturbed look on her face.

Steve looked at her expression, then looked at the house, then back to her. "What? What's that face?"

She frowned again, her eyes flickering to him for a moment, as if debating whether or not to speak; she then looked over the two-story house again, as if facing it down. "This house," she said, shaking a pointed finger at it. "Something's not right with this house."

* * *

><p>Chin came in to the kitchen, then looked around in a look of barely-concealed, confused disapproval. Steve and Kono were standing in a smoky kitchen, puffing away on cigarettes. "Hey cuz," Kono greeted, then started hacking. "How do people do this?" she mumbled.<p>

"Don't inhale," Steve admonished Kono between puffs. "You're not supposed to inhale."

"Right." Kono blew another stream of smoke at a break in the wall, making another face as she did so.

Chin looked from one to the other in the bizarre, turned-on-its-head smoking scene. "I suppose that means I won't need to report this to your parents, Kono," he deadpanned.

She managed to blow half a puff of smoke at a crease at the wall before coughing again. "That's for sure." She looked askance at the cigarette. "I think I'm going to be sick."

Steve, on the other side, blew some smoke at another crease. "Kono thinks the Holdens have a safe room," he explained. "When you measure the rooms on this top floor and add the space up, there's at least five linear feet missing when compared to the bottom floor."

Chin furrowed his brow, a slow frown forming. He straightened some child-drawn pictures hanging off the refrigerator door. "You think the reason we didn't see Billie is because she's hidden IN the house?"

"We know she's in the house," Kono replied confidently. "Nothing here, boss," she said to Steve as she moved away from the wall closest to the foyer.

"We did thermals," Steve answered Chin's unspoken question. "There's certainly somebody here, in a small saferoom right here," Steve commented, pointing at the kitchen wall which led towards the interior of the house. "We've already tried the other rooms around that empty - no way in. So the door to the saferoom has to be around here."

"We can contact the maker of the house," Chin pointed out, pulling out his phone.

"We might have to," Steve replied as he blew some more smoke at a wall. "The kid's been in here awhile already."

Chin nodded, but the look of confusion didn't disappear. "So we're smoking because ... ?"

"If there's a room on the other side of the wall, the smoke will be sucked into the room instead of bouncing back from the wall," Steve explained.

"Boss bummed a pack off of one the officers outside," Kono replied as she opened the door to the pantry and stepped in, studying the walls inside.

"Need some help?"

"Knock yourself out." Steve tossed him the pack and a rather large butane lighter. At Chin's look, he shrugged. "I don't keep a light on me."

"I got something. I got something." Steve and Chin crowded her in the pantry, and Kono blew some smoke towards the corner where the right and back wall met. Instead of floating around the wall, the smoke sucked straight through the crease and out of the pantry.

"So the entry button has to be around here," Chin muttered. Kono and Steve started pulling at boxes of food - nothing. Suddenly, there was a loud creak, and both pulled their weapons. Chin's face appeared in the doorway to the pantry; he had his gun in hand. "It was the rack of pots and pans on the wall - the second hook."

Steve looked around, then saw a crack between the back wall and the right wall. He raised his gun, pointing it towards the crack. Kono glanced at him, and he nodded. She kept her weapon trained on the door. He held up one finger, than a second; as he held up the third, he pushed open the door hard.

A little girl sat on the floor, staring up at them with wide blue eyes, her stuffed panda clutched in her arms.

* * *

><p>"Travis Holden? There isn't a person on earth who'd want to hurt him." The man paused in his yardwork long enough to wipe the back of his hand across his sweaty forehead. "That I can think of," he qualified.<p>

Chin raised an eyebrow. "Interesting. Why do you say that?"

"Amiable. Helpful. Generous. Quiet. Daughter's very well-behaved - polite, sweet, doesn't run into other people's yards. He's a good neighbor."

"Got along?"

"Oh, yeah. We guys around here" the man waved at the neighboring houses "have a monthly poker game. He hosts it a lot."

"Ever get heated?"

The man gave him an exasperated look. "Seriously?" As Chin raised an eyebrow questioningly, the man snorted derisively. "We don't gamble. All right," he corrected, "we actually gambled with chips once."

"And how'd that go?"

"I mean, we literally gambled with chips." The man looked sheepish. "We ended up with a pile of tortilla crumbs on the table." At Chin's raised eyebrow, the man said defensively, "We were a little tipsy."

"So, you had no problems with the Holdens."

"I wish he'd cut his lawn more often than every other week, but - " the man shrugged. "That's a small price to pay for a neighbor who's great in every other respect."

"So his NEIGHBORS don't want to kill him."

The man thought about it, then laughed. "OK, I concede your point. I'm sure he's most likely pissed off his share of people being a reporter. But around here, nobody."

"What about his wife?"

"Livy?" The man frowned. "I don't know. I suppose the chance of somebody wanting to kill her is about as high as it was for Travis. I mean, she doesn't exactly write the weekly recipes and stuff."

Chin smiled and nodded, then gently corrected, "I meant if Livy Holden might have had her husband - "

"No, no," the man interrupted, vigorously shaking his head. "They have a good marriage, from what I can see." He frowned. "'Sides, she couldn't have killed him. She's not even here. She's been gone for the last three days. Was supposed to be gone for awhile - her sister's having a kid."

"Got a phone number for her sister?"

"Nope. I've only got her local house number. Sorry."

* * *

><p>Kono gave a small smile as Billie looked up at the doctor, who smiled and patted the little girl on the back. She took her stethoscope off and started to put it away when she saw the little girl's eyes follow her hands. "Want to see it?"<p>

"You has a bear." Her voice brimmed with curiosity.

"It's a koala. Do you like it?" The doctor took off her stethoscope and showed the little girl the toy koala bear which hung off the tubes by its paws.

The little girl beamed and studied the small toy. "The bear has a booboo."

"What?"

Billie clumsily held up the bear and showed the doctor a worn patch on the bear.

"Oh." The doctor looked sheepish. "I think his fur rubbed off from where I kept picking him up."

"Oh."

"Want to listen to your heart?"

Billie brightened. "OK."

The doctor put the stethoscope on the girl's ears, then put the chestpiece over her own heart to show the child how to work it. The child's eyes brightened. Then the doctor placed the chestpeice over Billie's heart and put her hand over it to hold it in place. The little girl looked up in wonder, listening intently.

The doctor then came over to stand by Kono, and the two women watched the little girl for a few minutes. The child had her head bowed to her chest, trying to see the chestpiece. Her face was full of curious wonderment as she listened to her own heartbeat. "She's fine. Hungry, I imagine, and a little shaken up, but not hurt physically."

"Psychologically?"

"Not that I can tell, except for being frightened," the doctor replied. "She seems to maintain her curiosity, trust of adults. Most abused children don't necessarily have these things."

The doctor then waved to the the panda, who was now getting its "heart" checked by its owner, who was talking quietly to her stuffed toy. "You'll need to get that panda cleaned. What happened?"

"She couldn't reach the toliet and just had to go to the bathroom. She went in her clothes and on the floor," Kono replied. "Guess the urine got on the panda, too."

At the doctor's concerned but puzzled look, Kono shook her head. "No, we don't think it was neglect or abuse; by all accounts, you were right in your assessment that she doesn't appear to be abused. And don't worry. We'd report it if it were."

The doctor pulled out the chart, then asked, "Can I have her name, again? I didn't catch it."

"Holden. Billie Holden."

The scratching of the pen on paper stopped. "Holden? Livy Holden's daughter?" The doctor asked.

"Livy Holden - ?" Kono asked in a puzzled tone.

"Olivia and Travis Holden. This is their daughter?" the doctor asked in confirmation.

Kono nodded, then studied the doctor. "You know the Holdens?"

"We all know Livy Holden over here," the doctor replied. "She's a big friend to a lot of our charities."

* * *

><p>"Car pulled up around 9 pm. No," the woman said quickly as she looked out of her window, to the Holden house across the street, "just a few minutes little later."<p>

"You sure?" Steve asked.

"Yes." The woman nodded. "I know because I switched from 'Parks and Recreation' to 'The Mentalist', and they'd just run their opening credits." She leaned in to whisper to Steve, "I haven't watched NBC at 9 pm since they put Jay Leno on."

Steve gave her a "does it look like I care?" look, which the woman didn't seem to notice.

"I just love their cute Australian," the woman continued in her stage whisper. "He has the cutest curls in his hair."

"The car?" Steve prompted.

"Yes. I was standing near the window, fighting my TV antenna, and I saw a light-colored SUV - you know, the pale gold type."

"Champagne?" Steve asked in a deadpan voice.

"Yeah. A few men came out - most likely four. They went into the house, then came out about half an hour later." The woman paused. "I think one of them is - well, at least pretends to be wealthy."

Steve furrowed his brow, looking up, interested. "Why do you say that?"

"Well, one of the guys who came out held the door for him. And when he came out he brushed off his shirt and his pants, but the car didn't seem dirty. At least on the outside."

"Did you hear anything?"

"No." The woman waved towards a window and pushed it up. "Hear that? That's ocean. And highway. And my TV was on."

"All right." He handed the woman a card. "Call if you remember anything else."

"What's this all about? Holden's all right, right?"

Steve turned back to look at her from where he was leaving. "No. He's dead." He shut the door behind him.

_TBC_


	2. Chapter 2

**Ho'ike**  
>by Sammie<p>

All notes in first part.

* * *

><p>"Hey, great," Kono greeted as her cousin came in to 5-0 headquarters. "You're here."<p>

"Billie all right?" Chin asked.

"So far." Kono nodded towards her office, where they could see the small child in Kono's chair. She picked up the disposable cup, covered with a lid, and and pulled it down to herself before drinking out of it with the straw and putting it back on the desk. She then picked up a slice of fruit and munched away contentedly, studying with interest the Volkswagen microbus on Kono's desk.

"She's easily occupied," Steve commented.

"Thank God for that," Kono replied. "She's really not needy for attention at all and is pretty cheerful, despite everything. She entertains herself quite well, too. She liked your sailing ship and drew it." She pointed to the picture taped to the bottom of one of the televisions.

Steve pulled it down to look at it, an expression of impressed surprise on his face. "Better than some of the stuff we saw at our Balki-lookalike's modern art show."

Chin took the picture, looked it over, then frowned before holding up the back to Kono. "This is the first page of your report on our last case, cuz."

"Oops." Pause. "She doesn't ask permission to use paper?" Kono offered. When both men just gave her a look, she finished, "I'll print off another sheet!"

"What I want to know is how you managed to get that panda away from her," Steve asked, noticing the the tawny lion toy sitting on the desk nearby.

"Charlie Fong. When I went by to deliver some evidence, he offered to, quote, 'give the panda a bath'. When she was reluctant, he convinced her to let it go by giving her a lion from his pile of stuffed animals," Kono explained as she typed something into the tabletop computer.

Steve and Chin looked askance at her.

"What?" Kono looked up, and then at their look, she exclaimed in exasperation, "He collects stuffed toys for the kids in Kawika's charity!"

Steve just stared at her, a "really? REALLY?" look on his face, then shook his head and turned to Chin. "What did you get?"

"I checked into Kahaloa's alibi. He was where he said he was, at Andy's Sandwiches near the University of Hawaii - Manoa campus. Has even got the debit card receipt to prove it, and it checks out."

"He mention anybody who had it in for his boss?"

Chin gave a small smile, then brought up a picture on the screen. "William Naukana. Kahaloa said he was the only one in their department who didn't like Holden."

"'Only one'?" Steve repeated. "He's not being overly blinded by his affection for his mentor?"

"He had you pinned down by the time we left." Chin, looking amused, offered this as evidence of Kahaloa's ability to read people. Behind them, Kono hid a smile. "Jeremy said that Naukana resented Holden; apparently, Holden started getting big stories to cover the minute he moved here, all because of his previous credentials in Los Angeles."

"Naukana worked his way up, grew up on the island, and so he was jealous," Kono guessed.

"Holden had the life - beautiful wife, daughter, good jobs. Blows in anywhere, people love him. Wouldn't you resent him?" Chin shrugged. "I'm going to question Nauakana later; I'm still waiting for Holden's financial records to come through."

"I'll go," Kono volunteered. "I'm already headed over to get Holden's office boxed up for evidence."

"His neighbors said he was great," Steve mused, "so they're most likely not the ones who killed him. One did say they saw a champagne-colored SUV pulled up just a few minutes after 9 last night."

"A license plate?" Chin asked.

"No."

"Your witness is sure of the time?" Chin asked, heading towards the tabletop computer and typing away, bringing up the local car registry with the transportation department.

"Said she's positive, since she said she just switched the channel and finished watching the opening credits to her show with some cute guy with curly hair." Steve shrugged. "She was fixing her antenna and saw the car through the window."

"She was watching 'The Mentalist'," Kono replied.

Steve turned to her in disbelief, crossing his arms and furrowing his brow as he tried to figure it out. "What? How do you know that?"

Kono held her hand open and slowly pressed her middle finger of her left hand to her left temple. "A little bit of this," she said mysteriously, as if thinking hard, then repeated the action with her other side, "and a little bit of that."

Chin shook his head, a silent grin on his face as he headed to his office.

At Steve's blank look, Kono chuckled. "Got to get out more, boss." She headed back into her office, and Steve followed. "Billie, honey," she started, crouching down to the little girl's level, "I have to go get something. Remember Uncle Steve? Stay here with Uncle Steve, OK?"

The little girl looked up from her food to Steve, blinked, and then looked at Kono, then back to Steve, and then turned to Kono with her arms outstretched. "I wanna go wif you," she said pleadingly. "Don' wanna thtay here."

Steve looked insulted.

"Uncle Chin will be here, too. Remember him?" Kono pointed towards her cousin's office. "Uncle Chin'll stay, too. Is that OK?"

The tot blinked. "Oh," she said, then looked over at Chin's office. "OK!" She nodded in agreement, settling back into her chair with her cup of juice.

Steve looked even more insulted.

"Can I plays with the car?" Billie pointed at the Volkswagen bus on Kono's desk.

"Yes, you may play with the bus."

Billie perked up and gave Kono a hug, then went back to eating and studying the car, faint 'vroom' sounds coming in between chews. Steve watched her as she looked over the bus and traced the V and the W on it. Kono smiled and dropped a kiss on her head. She then pulled her gun out of a top shelf and re-checked her safety, and then started out of the office.

"So, how'd you do it?" Steve asked with amusement when she emerged from her office.

"Do what?"

"Figure out what that woman was watching."

Kono chuckled. "She said she was working her antenna, which means she doesn't have cable, which limits the amount of things she could be watching. She said that she saw the opening credits of some show. Some networks have already moved to news, which rules them out, because you said 'show'. Rarely do shows have sitcoms at the 9 pm hour, so she switched to a drama, and given the day of Holden's death, which was Thursday, that severely limits the number of possible things she might have seen.

"She said she switched channels, which means if she's like most Americans, she switched from NBC's comedy block to another network. NBC hasn't really recovered since that Leno debacle. 'The Mentalist' is the most popular show of Thursday nights in that timeslot, and it's got a cute guy with curly hair. Australian, too."

"Well, look at you," Steve chuckled admiringly, as Kono smiled and turned, starting to head out. "'Cute guy'?" he called after her.

"He's a cute Australian actor with blond curls," Kono replied, pausing at the door.

"Why are you so partial blonds?" Steve asked, looking insulted.

"Perhaps I'm partial to Australians," Kono teased with a wink as she disappeared out the door.

* * *

><p>"They told me I would find you here."<p>

The man jumped, then turned to see a young woman standing several feet away. "You can arrest me for trespassing later." He turned back to look around the empty, abandoned building. "They're turning the Honolulu Advertiser building into a soundstage," he said in disgust. "A soundstage!"

"Times change," Kono replied. "Our economy needs to keep up with it."

Naukana snorted, then turned back to look around the building. "This place is almost a hundred years old," he said quietly. "Early radio stations. Of course, the Honolulu Advertiser."

"Honolulu isn't the only place where newspapers have been affected by the Internet," Kono pointed out mildly.

"Some blasted Hollywood show is going to be shooting here," Naukana murmured. "Where they typed reports on Pearl Harbor, JFK, Watergate."

"Could be worse. They could be turning the building into a brothel or a casino."

"Have a little respect," Naukana snapped. "There's years of history here."

"Including yours?" Kono asked quietly.

The man looked at her briefly, distrustfully. "Yes. My grandfather was a reporter, as was my father, all for the Honolulu Advertiser. I played in this office."

"But Travis Holden didn't." Kono tilted her head to one side, studying the man as she stepped towards him. "Haole from the mainland comes blowing in, takes everything over."

"Of course it did. Everybody thinks it's done right on the mainland rather than here." Naukana sounded bitter.

"Had to make you mad," Kono replied in a quiet, sympathetic voice. Naukana just glanced at her. "Mad enough to kill?"

"This about Holden's death?" he exclaimed. "Look, I didn't like the guy, but I wouldn't have killed him."

"You were the first one people named as disliking Holden."

"Who?" he demanded. When Kono simply raised an eyebrow at him, he glared. "I didn't like the fact that he kept getting promoted over the rest of us here, but I'm not stupid," Naukana spat. He heaved a sigh, then said in quiet, pained voice, "Besides, he's got a wife and a little girl. I'd never leave somebody without a husband or a father."

"And your complaints against Holden?" Kono asked, crossing her arms. "It's well-known that you had many. Doesn't look good for you."

"I didn't - !" Naukana threw up his hands, then glared. "Look. I know those promotions came down from the top, not from Holden himself. And he was a good researcher - he never stopped plugging away, and his work was thorough. And he never stole anybody else's ideas. He didn't have to; he came up with good proposals himself. I hate to say it, but he was a really good reporter."

"How good?"

"Very good," Naukana replied. "He made friends quickly, even among us natives. People trusted him because he put his neck on the line for them; they were willing to help him because they could rely on him when they were in trouble. Sometimes a little too much. Reporters still have to maintain a distance, you know."

Kono watched him steadily, then handed him a card. "Don't leave town. We may have more questions."

* * *

><p>Steve trotted into the morgue at a fast clip, his footsteps echoing enough and the sound of the opening door alerting one of the men inside to his appearance. Chin greeted him over the music coming from the piano. "Everything all right? Took you longer than expected."<p>

"Everything with a kid takes longer than expected," Steve commented, though without exasperation. "She wanted a drink. And then to go to the bathroom. And then her panda wanted a drink. And to go to the bathroom."

"Kaumaha au nou," Chin just chuckled in more of a _schadenfreude_ tone than a sympathetic one, which just earned him a look from his boss. "Hey, children are like that. It's what makes them irritating and cute."

"You speak like somebody who knows," Steve said suspiciously.

"Kono and I have lots of small cousins," he offered in way of explanation.

The music stopped as the medical examiner got to his feet, then looked at McGarrett. "You are tardy."

"Little kid emergency."

The man's face flashed brief panic. "Here?" He blinked, his face the picture of impassive resignation. "I don't deal well with small children."

"Never have guessed," Steve deadpanned. "No, kid's not here. Sergeant Lukela offered to watch her while we're down here. What've you got?"

"Mr. Travis Holden." Dr. Bergman gently folded back the sheet and pointed to the wound, right in the middle of the forehead. "Gunshot wound to the forehead was the killshot."

"Close range?"

"Not more than three feet of distance, based on the - blast pattern," the medical examiner replied, waving to the man's face.

"Holden was facing the guy who shot him?" Steve asked.

The doors whooshed open to admit Kono. "Did I miss anything?"

"Right on time," Chin complimented. "You get anything on Naukana?"

"He resents Holden, all right, but his alibi checks out solid. Talked to some of his family - seems he lost a parent when he was young, and he's always had a soft spot for parent-less children. Makes me wonder whether he'd be able to knock one off himself. I've got his bank records and stuff coming in." She greeted the medical examiner. "Hi, Max."

"Good afternoon." He picked up where he left off. "Now, as I was saying, I believe Mr. Holden was facing his attacker. However, there also is the imprint of a muzzle on the back of his shirt and on his skin." Max turned the body over to show where there was a faint imprint.

"How do you even see that?" Kono muttered, squinting.

"It matches with the gun residue shape on the back of his shirt, near the left shoulder." Max held up the shirt and turned it over, where there was a light outline of some dust and gunpowder.

"But no shot," Steve clarified.

"He was not shot in the back," Max confirmed.

"So Travis had his back to the shooter at one point," Chin mused, turning his back to his teammates as he pretended to be Holden in a small demonstration. "Shooter presses the gun against his shoulder."

"He turns," Steve replied as Chin followed through. Steve, then pretending to be the shooter, placed his hand in a gun-motion close to Chin's forehead. "Killer shoots him in the forehead."

"Muzzle isn't against his forehead because there's no imprint or residue," Chin pointed out.

"Still, he's shot at close enough range," Steve disagreed, stepping out of character. "Look at that blast pattern from the shot." He held up a crime scene photo.

Chin nodded, then slipped back in character. He pretended to snap his head back, then let his body fall naturally to the ground. "This is how Kahaloa found him."

"You don't need me here," Kono joked playfully. "Why did you call me down to the morgue, again?"

"You brighten it up," Steve deadpanned, and she rolled her eyes, though her smile cut the force of it. Steve crossed his arms, thinking. "So Holden puts his daughter in a saferoom, then turns his back on his killer. I don't get it."

"He knows him," Kono suggested, thinking aloud. "There were no signs of forced entry. Or, perhaps, he needs to bluff - pretend he's not as scared as he is." Kono supplied. "Both, perhaps."

"And THAT's why you were called down here," Chin smiled at his cousin, who grinned back.

"The bullet appears to be a 9 mm," Max continued in a clinical tone. "Very common."

"How common?" Steve asked.

"The HPD issues Smith and Wesson 5906s - which are 9 mils - to its entire force," Chin replied.

"Great," Steve muttered.

"Time of death," Max recited, "about 9:10 pm. Death most likely instantaneous or closely thereafter. I believe the shooter is right-handed."

"Right-handed," Kono cut in. "Why?"

"The shot is slightly right of center." Max demonstrated with the corpse. "That is consistent with a right-handed shooter."

"Anything besides the gunshot?" Chin asked.

"Mr. Holden appeared to have fought with his attacker," Max went on. He lifted one of the man's arms. "There is bruising here and here - " he reached around the body to the other arm " - and here and here. He may have been grabbed."

"Overpowered by his attacker?" Steve asked.

"It is very unlikely that Mr. Holden was overpowered. Bruising on his knuckles" Max held up the man's hand and tilted it towards them "indicate he threw a punch, possibly two, and was able to draw blood almost immediately - yet he broke none of his bones. Nor are any of his wounds defensive."

"Is there any DNA from his attacker on his knuckles? Did you take swabs?" Kono asked as her older cousin grinned with a little amusement and not a little pride.

Max held up several swabs, all labelled. "They will be ready to test when you wish them to be."

"Did you find anything on the body, Max?" Steve asked as Chin's phone rang, and the cop left to take the call.

The man brightened. "Indeed, I did." He scooted around the morgue table towards the other room, where his evidence bottles and tubes were laid out in a perfect row. "This is the slug."

"Send that up to Fong."

Bergman then picked up a small bottle with no small amount of delight and excitement. "This is green silk, of the finest Italian quality. The raw silk is sent to the companies in northern Italy, which dye and print it, and then use - "

"OK, I got it," Steve cut him off. "Holden was wearing this?"

"Oh, most certainly not. He was wearing a cotton polo shirt." Bergman gave a grin, one of knowing he had provided a lead.

"You think the man he fought with had on a green silk shirt," Steve confirmed.

"Italian silk," Kono murmured. "We found a metal Gucci logo under the body."

"So the man who tangled with Holden was wealthy," Steve commented slowly. "One of the witnesses said she suspected one of the men at Holden's house last night was better off."

"Boss, we got a problem." Chin materialized next to him, his face stolid.

Steve nodded, then gave the medical examiner a thumbs-up. "You're awesome, Max," Steve called back as the three ran out.

Bergman beamed. "I'm awesome," he repeated with a cheerful, happy smile. "Why, thank you."

* * *

><p>The team ran up to the squad room to find the sergeant pacing. "She's gone," Lukela blurted. "Commander McGarrett, I'm so sorry." The man looked so guilty Steve reconsidered yelling. "She was just in the breakroom having a snack and then was gone."<p>

"Look, it was too much for us to ask you to watch her and to do all the stuff you had to do," Chin replied. "It's our fault as well. Let's just focus on where she is."

"Can we put out an amber alert?" Kono asked, rubbing her arm nervously. "She was in a pale green sundress, carrying that stuffed lion toy."

"Let's check the cameras on squadroom," Steve replied. "See if she appears to be going off-camera. We need HPD to blanket the area. If possible, I'd like her name kept out of this so we don't alert the people who killed her father."

"What if she's here in the building?" Chin suggested. "She's three. She can't have walked that far. Our first search this morning found her right in her own house."

"Stay here and look, and wait if she comes back," Steve instructed. Chin nodded.

Steve ran out towards the parking lot, Kono on his heels, dodging the myriad of police cars peeling out of the lot. He got into his truck, Kono climbing in the passenger's side. He roared out of the lot, flanked by a stream of HPD cars.

* * *

><p>He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye; she wasn't watching him, just looking out the window, chewing on a fingernail as she did so. He ventured nothing; nothing he could offer would ease her sense of guilt - or his own, for having let the tot out of his sight.<p>

The police radio lines were busy, each of the many officers calling in their locations and where they planned to search, as well as preliminary reports..

His phone rang. Steve turned it on and set it to speaker. "Chin."

"Good news: she JUST disappeared. A couple of the HPD officers said they saw her in their breakroom less than half an hour ago. One of them even sat her on a chair and gave her some Cheerios in a bowl."

"But?"

"The bad part is that she must have encountered fifty, sixty some people today in the past hour. Lukela said a lot of people came over to say hello - several of whom weren't HPD people. Apparently most of them knew Holden."

"Naukana told Kono he made friends quickly and helped a lot of people," Steve muttered. "OK. Half an hour - she can't have gotten that far."

"Unless she was taken," Chin pointed out.

The police radio crackled, and Steve spoke quickly. "Chin, check the cameras, and get up a list of everybody who came in to HPD and who went into that breakroom."

"Got it." The phone clicked off.

The police radio came alive. "We've had a few reports from drivers of a small child running along South Beretania, headed for the downtown - well, towards 5-0 headquarters."

Steve swung the truck around, the wheels rolling over a median as he headed in the other direction. He took a side alley and came on Beretania and then slowed down.

"Got a visual," came another voice over the radio. "She just passed the malassada store."

Steve slammed on the brakes, throwing his car into park; Kono had already jumped out of the moving car and was dashing towards the storefronts.

As they pushed through the pedestrians on the sidewalk, he scanned the area. Nothing. Kono was on the other side, a few shops behind him; she turned into an alley, then reappeared. "She's gotta be around here somewhere," she exclaimed, holding up her hands in a "what the heck" gesture.

"There!" From nearly a block in the other direction, a shout from one of the HPD officers caught Steve's attention, and he followed the woman's finger towards a tiny green blur, heading out of side street towards traffic.

"Billie!" Kono's voice was panicked but far away. Steve started sprinting the last block diagonally, tumbling over a line of parked cars. A car honked frantically, and there were screeching wheels as Billie dashed into the road, still running at full tilt. Steve put on an extra burst of speed, grabbing the child and rolling across the hood of the braking car before dropping to the other side. He managed to stay on his feet temporarily, stumbling the last few feet to the grassy median, where he fell. He tucked the little girl against him and rolled onto his back, trying to prevent her from being hurt. Behind him, squealing tires and screeching brakes could be heard, and then shouts and the sounds of car doors slamming.

"Daddy?"

Everything seemed to fade into the distance - the horns, the shouting, the sirens; all he could hear was this small baby voice, so hopeful, accompanied by a tear-stained but bright-eyed and beaming face. When the child saw him, her expression fell.

Steve said nothing; he simply gave her a sad smile.

The little girl stared at him in shocked disappointment for a full second, as if unable to process the thought that it wasn't her father. She then began to cry again, but instead of pushing him away as Steve expected, she flung herself against him and cried and cried, inconsolable.

"Billie!" Kono materialized beside them, and the child instantly let go of Steve and scrambled for her, burying herself in the cop's arms. The little girl was shaking and crying, wrapping her small arms tightly around Kono's neck. The cop kept one arm across the small body, patting it comfortingly, her other hand reaching out to her boss, who was sitting up. "Boss, you all right?"

"Yeah." Steve winced a little as he sat up. "OK. I'll be fine. Billie, you all right?"

Kono gently peeled the tot away enough so the two of them could see her face. "Billie, honey?" She got no answer, just more crying.

Chin appeared at the moment, flanked by what seemed to Steve to be the entire HPD. He reached a hand down to each of them. "You guys all right?"

"Yeah." Kono took her cousin's hand and pulled herself and the child up. "I think boss - " she didn't finish, but waved to him.

"We'll get you both looked at." Chin pulled him up, patting him on the back as they started to head back to the building.

* * *

><p>"Didn't expect to see you back so soon," the doctor commented.<p>

"Didn't expect to be back so soon," Kono replied over the head of the little girl, who sat in her lap as the cop gently stroked her back. The child's face was still wet with tears, trails on her cheeks and random drops on her eyelashes. In each fist was a slice of apple, which she was eating in between sniffles.

The cop gave her a big, affectionate kiss on her cheek, and the child turned to look up at her, a big, bright smile through her tears, and got a smile back from the older woman. "Let the doctor see you again, OK?" The little girl only looked back to the doctor.

"Let's see how you are," the doctor said gently, and Billie nodded.

"Chin." Steve looked up as the other man came in, and two moved to the side.

"How're you doing?" Chin asked.

"I'm fine."

"What did the DOCTOR say?" Chin repeated the question with a knowing smile.

"Just bumps and bruises, be more careful, et cetera. What did you get from witnesses?"

"A few people said they tried to stop her, but she just kept running, and they didn't want to be seen grabbing a toddler off the street."

"Not in this day and age," Steve agreed.

"That's when they started calling in to HPD."

"What else?"

"All of them said she was crying as she ran." They looked back towards the the small child awkwardedly brushed her hair out of her face with her hands, and Kono gently wrapped her arms around her and gave her a soft kiss on the head. The doctor was still doing her checkup.

"Were they able to say why she ran?"

Chin shook his head.

The doctor finished up, then slung her stethoscope around her neck. She took a few steps away to join the two cops, lowering her voice so the child wouldn't hear. "She's shaken up, but not physically injured," she informed them as the three glanced back at the small child, who sat resting against Kono. "She seems rather spooked, though."

"Did she tell you by what?"

The doctor shook her head. She looked at the team, then said quietly, "I'll give you a few minutes alone."

They nodded their thanks and she departed. Chin made sure the door was closed, then nodded to Steve.

"Hey kiddo. You OK?" Steve pulled up a chair to the examining table where Kono sat, Billie in her lap.

She nodded. A moment later, she sat up and held out to him her left fist, which had a slice of uneaten apple.

He smiled. "Thank you, but you keep it." He paused a moment, trying to gather his thoughts, and then asked gently, "Billie, why did you run away from Sgt. Lukela?"

The little girl looked up at him, and then her mouth turned down and she looked down at her lap.

"Billie, it's OK to tell us," Chin said gently. "Don't be scared."

Kono tried a different tack. "Didn't you want to look at the flowers outside?" she asked. "You told Sgt. Lukela you wanted to stand on the chair by the door and look at the flowers."

"I looked at f'owers."

"Why did you leave?"

"I's hungry. The man bringed pizza."

To Steve, it sounded more like "Eyesungwee'demanbingpeetsuh," but everybody else seemed to understand her just fine. "Did you follow the man bringing the pizza?" Kono asked.

"Uh-huh. Lots of people people eating there. I getted Cheerios." The little girl brightened a little.

"What happened after that?" Steve asked, a hint of tension creeping into his tone.

At that, the little girl's mouth turned down again, and she turned a pair of frightened eyes to Kono.

"Billie, you have to let us know what happened, OK?" she said gently, stroking her hair and gently brushing loose strands out of her face. "We want to help you and keep you safe, but you got to tell us what happened."

"He putted his hand over my mouf," she said, her voice trembling.

"Sweetheart, what did he say?" Kono asked gently.

The little girl's breathing began to hitch, as if she were going to cry.

"Billie, it's OK," Kono murmured, gently stroking her back. "Tell us what he said."

"He killed Mommie if I saided anything," she said in a small voice, tears starting to well up. She burrowed herself in Kono's arms.

"Who? Who's going to kill your mother?" Steve cut in, urgency making him impatient. When she shook her head, he said calmly, "It's OK. Tell us."

"Kepolo," she replied, muffled.

It meant nothing to him, but Kono and Chin shared a look of exasperation and anger. Steve leaned forward. "What? What? What's that look? Who's 'kepolo'?"

She looked at him, nearly speechless with anger, then took a deep breath. "'The devil'," she replied.

_TBC_


	3. Chapter 3

**Ho'ike**  
>by Sammie<p>

All notes in first part.

Thank you to all who have read up to this point, and a special thanks to those who took the time to review! - yes, Danny will appear - rather late than never. - Kono's my favorite character, so I try to give her good airtime. :-) - I love Max, too - especially with all his eccentricities.

**To readers**: I'm a very visual person, and this story really began with an image in my head of this little girl sitting in Kono's lap. I've got a picture I'd be willing to post if anybody actually wants to see the inspiration for "Billie" (and her parents).

* * *

><p>"Hey! My favorite haole," Kamekona greeted with a big grin as McGarrett approached.<p>

"And what do you call Danny?" Steve asked with suspicious, albeit amused, expression.

Kamekona looked like a deer caught in the headlights, then decided the best tack was to ignore the question. He quickly turned to Kono with the an even bigger grin and welcome. "Kaikuahine!" he greeted with a big hug and a kiss on her cheek, even as she laughed and returned the hug. "And who is this beautiful little lady?"

Billie hid her face in Kono's neck.

"This is Billie," Kono introduced. "Billie, say hello to Kamekona."

"'lo," came a soft voice.

"For my first-time customers who are as pretty and polite as you, free kid's ice," the man boomed.

"What are you talking about?" Steve exclaimed. "When I was a first-time customer you made me buy an ice and a tee-shirt!"

"You're not pretty like this little lady here," Kamekona replied, then turned back to the little girl. "And what do you want your special ice to taste like?"

"Pink." She lifted her head, looking interested now. She wiped her teary face with her small hands.

"OK!" The big man squirted red syrup over the small ice.

"Kamekona's pink shave ice will take those tears away," the man continued. He finished up with a flourish and handed her the brightly colored ice. "Ah, now, see? Looks pretty, huh?"

The shave ice owner managed to get a shy smile out of the small child as she held the ice in her hands, admiring the cheerful color. "'s pretty," she agreed, looking at it with shining eyes.

Steve watched with amusement as Kono smiled. "What do you say, keiki?" she prodded gently.

"Fank you," she said bashfully, then leaned over and gave Kamekona a hug.

"See, Kamekona knows best, eh?" Kamekona winked as he handed Kono her ice. As Kono led the small child away, the large man turned to Steve. "You cops babysit now?"

"In a sense. Her father was murdered."

Kamekona grew serious. "Oh." He scooped some ice out and patted it down in the cup. "That explains the crying."

"That crying," Steve corrected, "is because she was told somebody was going to kill her mother, too." She stopped and waited as Kamekona looked over at the small child, who was seated on Kono's lap at a table and completely immersed in eating her ice. As the big man looked back and handed him an ice, Steve pulled out a photo of Travis Holden. "You know him?"

Kamekona looked at the photo carefully, and Steve noticed a flicker of recognition. The man did not stop working, just continued deliberately scooping ice into the cup. "He the one who die?"

"Yeah." When the other man didn't say anything, Steve leaned forward. "He was a doing a series on the drug wars on the islands. C'mon. Give me a name. Who did he make mad?"

"Local drug dealers wanted to kill that haole? They'd done it long time ago." Kamekona shook his head as he squirted syrup on the ice. "He made enemies, but he got connections on this island. He dies, people get upset."

"He had protection?" Steve frowned.

The big man nodded. "HPD. They love him. We all know: no local seller touches Holden - they risk making the entire police department angry."

"Well, somebody thought they could get around that." Steve looked at him intently. "Name."

"Perhaps the Mexican drug lords," Kamekona replied. "He upset them with his recent articles."

"He was writing on the influence of the Mexican drug wars on the islands," Steve murmured, remembering. "And they don't care about HPD."

"You're the smart one," Kamekona said, pointing at his brain and then to Steve. "I tell you a little secret - right now?" The big man shook his head as he handed Steve his ice. "These new articles make the local dealers like him a little more. They're happy he's left them alone."

"And if he targets the Mexican drug czars and forces them out of Hawaii, business goes up for them," Steve mused.

Kamekona nodded in agreement.

* * *

><p>"Hi," Charlie greeted as Steve came into his lab. "Was wondering when you'd be able to come in."<p>

"Let's just say that searching for missing children tends to disrupt one's schedule," Steve replied.

"Speaking of." Charlie held out a plastic bag to Steve.

"This is - ?" McGarrett looked inside and saw the large panda, freshly laundered. "Ah. Thanks."

"Bring it to 5-0 for me?"

"No problem." Steve nodded. "You checked out the things Max sent up?"

"Yeah." Charlie brought up a few images onto his computer. "This is the bullet Max pulled out of Holden. Standard issue, 9 millimeter. Just get me a gun so I can match bullets."

"We're working on that. Unfortunately, everybody around here uses a 9 mil."

"I processed his clothes and everything else you guys sent to me. I didn't find any fingerprints at all on any of the things in the house."

"Used gloves."

"Unfortunately. And they used a latex glove - there's no fibers, either, that I've found so far. The fingerprints I found on the stuff in the home match those of the Holden family."

"How'd you get his wife's prints?"

Charlie chuckled. "Security clearance. She's got it. Was vetted by the FBI when she was on White House detail."

"WHITE HOUSE?" Steve frowned. "What's she doing in Hawaii?"

"Verifying the president's certificate of live birth for Donald Trump," Charlie deadpanned, his eyes twinkling. At the look he got, he grinned, "Too soon?"

Steve chuckled and shook his head.

"I don't know," Charlie shrugged. "Story goes that the Holdens were big shots in Los Angeles, but they angered a lot of the underworld by exposing all kinds of crime rings. Rumor is that they moved here for some peace and quiet. And safety."

Steve snorted. "Ironic."

"No kidding." Charlie typed a little more and brought up another screen. "Now these - these are interesting."

"That's the green silk fiber."

"High quality Italian silk, like Bergman said. Certainly not Holden's, and not likely to be his." The door opened, and the men turned. "Danny!" Charlie greeted with a grin.

"Long time no see," Danny grinned, clapping the man on the shoulder as Charlie laughed. "How ya been?"

"Well, thanks. How's Grace?"

"Great," Danny grinned.

"She's - eight, right?" Charlie asked, pausing to recalculate the child's age.

"Nine, now. Just had a birthday couple of weeks ago."

"Wow."

"You two know each other?" Steve asked, an amused look on his face.

"Well, before I decided to risk my life every day and get shot at," Danny began as he threw an arm around Fong's shoulders, "I worked as a detective for HPD." He gestured to himself, then to Charlie.

Charlie chuckled, then clarified, "Meka was a friend of mine. We worked a lot of cases together - some of those once he was assigned to Danny."

"So!" Danny looked at them expectantly. "What've we got?"

"What, no 'hello' for me?" Steve asked, crossing his arms.

Danny pretended to think this over. "No." He turned back to Charlie, as if to listen to the lab scientist go on, then commented, "And thank you for the literally one million messages going, 'Kid missing', 'found kid', 'kid missing', 'found kid'. Make up your mind. I had to call Kono to see what was going on."

"'Literally'? 'Literally one million'?" Steve retorted.

Charlie just looked amused. When both men turned back to him, he thought for a moment, trying to recall his train of thought. He then jerked his thumb back to the image of the thread on the computer monitor. "Green Italian silk fiber."

"Could it have been Holden's?"

"Unlikely. Italian silk's pricey. It wouldn't be his normal wear. That, and - " Charlie shrugged. "He's not the type - for that or for the shoes." He called up a colored image. "That's one of the footprints in the yard." He then picked up a plaster cast, which he handed to Steve. "This is a plaster cast of the imprint."

"Looks like some kind of...dress shoe," Danny said, running his fingers over the flat sole of the plaster cast. "Smooth sole."

Steve frowned, then pointed at Charlie with the cast. "One of the witnesses said one of the men who showed up seemed rather wealthy and pampered."

"Well, he did show up at a murder in a dress shoe," Charlie commented.

"If he's willing to do that kind of dirty work in Italian silk shirts and dress shoes - " Steve began.

" - our killer wears higher-end clothes as part his regular clothing," Danny finished. "That'll narrow down our pool."

Charlie indicated the print on the computer behind him. "13 men's. From the evidence you brought in, Holden was a 11, 12." He pointed to the shoe. "If you get me a shoe, I can match it."

"Anything else notable?"

"Oh, yeah." Fong grinned and motioned towards the plaster cast, which Steve handed back. "If you look," he said, flipping the cast up so they could see the sole, "here the sole slopes down - and then flattens out along the outer edge of the shoe. You can see where the outer edge has been worn down."

"The guy's feet slope outwards and downwards," Danny concluded.

"Supination," Charlie nodded. "I can also tell you the wearer was heavyset, based on the sink pattern into the soil. That's it on that."

"What about the DNA swabs?" Steve asked.

"You have DNA?" Danny asked incredulously. "How do we not have this guy, then?"

"Holden managed to land a few hits with his right fist," Steve replied. "As to the second, we've been a little busy!"

"Yeah, finding and losing one child. You're a Navy SEAL! How do you lose track of a three-year-old? She's THREE!"

"Oh, for - "

"No hits on the DNA yet," Charlie cut in. "Of course, it might be somebody not in the system."

"Not good," Steve replied, and Charlie nodded. "Anything else on what we got from Holden's office?"

"Not yet."

Danny frowned, his brow furrowing. He uncrossed his arms just enough to gesture with one hand, pointing at the floor at different intervals for emphasis. "Holden. This is Travis Holden?"

"Yeah, why?" Steve asked.

"Holden," Danny looked at Charlie for confirmation. "He's the guy tied to the HPD fund, the, uh - " he waved as he tried to remember.

" - disability and the widowed spouses and the orphans fund," Charlie supplied. "He's been one of its major supporters the last two years."

"Right," Danny continued, "I remember Amy mentioned getting help from them when Meka was killed."

"We had a few people tell us Holden's very popular around here," Steve put in. "That he's been very involved since he moved here."

"Oh, yeah." Charlie nodded. "He's stuck his neck on the line for this department."

"Whoever targeted him must be desperate enough to take on a police force," Steve murmured.

"Or stupid enough," Danny replied.

* * *

><p>"Welcome back," Chin greeted as Steve and Danny came into headquarters, joining him at the tabletop computer.<p>

"You get in touch with Livy Holden?"

"Finally, yes. She's going to book a ticket and call as soon as she gets an arrival time for here in Hawaii. She's flying from New York," Chin explained to Danny on the side. "It won't be until tomorrow, though. Kono's going to take Billie tonight." He nodded at them. "You get anything good?"

"Travis Holden's attacker appears to be wealthy and never committed a crime," Steve replied.

"Well, it's a start," Chin started. He nodded towards Kono's office, where Billie and Grace were seated on the floor. Grace was gently guiding Billie's hand to pet the chubby little rabbit in its small plastic rabbit carrier. The small blonde child was beaming, and she could be seeing talking to the rabbit, and then asking Grace a question. "Your daughter's been great."

"Well, of course. She's my daughter," Danny replied matter-of-factly. At the sound of his voice, Grace came out and ran to her father, who gave her a hug. "You doing OK?"

Grace nodded.

Steve ignored him and turned to Grace. "Heya, Grace. Thanks for helping us out." He grinned at her.

She smiled shyly.

"First assignment as a cop," Steve teased and held out his fist, and Grace beamed and fist-bumped him.

"Do not fist-bump my daughter."

"Wha - ? Seriously? You just said not to fist-bump your daughter? What's wrong with fist-bumping?"

"This is my daughter. She's a nice, normal, nine-year - "

"Nine and two months, Daddy."

" - nine-year-and-two-months-old, and fist-bumping is not a socially accepted form of greeting among - "

"We fist-bump!"

"It's my concession to your insanity!"

"Your concession?" Steve started to protest, then grinned and turned to Grace. "Wanna bet that vein in his neck is throbbing? Wanna check?"

Grace giggled, then looked at her father - who, true enough, looked like he was about to have an apoplexy. When she confirmed the vein in his neck was indeed throbbing in indignation, Steve held out his fist, and Grace, smiling, fist-bumped her father's partner.

"What? What did I JUST say?"

Steve just smirked at him. "Wanna see what we brought ya?" he said to Grace.

"OK."

Steve gave a small chuckle and set a box on the table, then pulled out a huge box of Liliha coco puffs.

"Oh, cool!" Grace look intrigued.

"First dibs." Steve winked as he opened the box for her.

"Can Billie have one?" Grace asked as he picked one out.

"Sure. In a bit."

"How do you like Billie?" Danny asked as he took one for himself.

"She's cute," Grace nodded, chewing around her puff. "She likes your tie."

"She's the only one," Steve snarked as he headed to Kono's office, where the three-year-old was still talking quietly to the rabbit, which was cheerfully ignoring her.

Through the window, Danny could see the other man hand a cheerful-looking panda to the little three-year-old, at which point he turned back to his daughter. "She likes my tie, huh?"

"She likes the blue stripes on it."

"When'd she see it?"

"Right before you left."

"That was fast," Danny muttered. He straightened and gave his daughter's ponytail a tug. "She's a bit younger than you," he commented as they watched Billie run full tilt out of Kono's office towards Chin's, plowing straight into Kono's arms. "It was kind of you to play with her."

Grace smiled. They were quiet for a little bit, and then Grace said quietly, "She's very sad."

"Yeah?"

"She misses her dad," Grace said quietly.

Danny put her arm around his daughter. "You did good, cheering her up."

"That you did," Chin commented. He tweaked Grace's ponytail. "You did a great job babysitting."

"Thanks, Uncle Chin." Grace smiled, chocolate on her mouth.

"Coco puffs are good, aren't they," Chin whispered with a wink.

"They're great."

Kono appeared then, coming out of Chin's office with a sniffling Billie in her arms. "Ooh, coco puffs. Hey, Gracie," she greeted, giving the other girl a one-armed hug. One of the two stuffed toys Billie was holding dropped to the floor, and Grace bent over to pick it up. "Thank you."

Grace just smiled shyly.

"Want a coco puff, keiki?" Kono asked.

Another sniffle. "'K." Kono set her in an office chair and raised it so she could reach the table and gave her a coco puff on a napkin, even as Grace pushed her chair near to her . The little girl abruptly wiped some tears away with her hand and then sat up, carefully placed her stuffed toys by her side, one on each side of her. She then studied the dessert, poking at it with a finger.

"What's wrong?" Danny asked, pointing back at the three-year-old. "She seemed fine five minutes ago."

"Somebody," Kono emphasized, her tone mixed with just a tiny tinge of irritation and boatloads of amusement, "told her her new lion might eat her panda." Four sets of eyes turned to look at Steve, who was watching the news on one of the screens.

He was still looking at the television when he finally noticed the silence, then turned and found they were all looking at him. "Why are you all looking at me?"

"Oh, I don't know. Your constantly winning way with children?" Danny snarked.

He crossed his arms as his teammates - and Grace, for crying out loud - continued to look at him. "It was a JOKE. I was TEASING."

"She's THREE, Mary Poppins," Danny retorted sarcastically. "As if she weren't traumatized enough."

"It was meant to make her laugh after - " he waved vaguely "this afternoon!"

"Make her laugh," Danny repeated. "Do you hear yourself? She's THREE! You told her her lion would eat her panda when she wasn't looking!" He pinched the bridge of his nose. "And y'all thought my Jack in the Box joke was too soon."

Chin tried to hide an amused smile, ducking his head. At Steve's glare, he held up his hands in a "hands-off" gesture, replying only, "I saw the kid with the hippo innertube."

Steve gave him an exasperated, betrayed look. "Did you find anything on the HPD video yet, or about that SUV?"

"Not yet." Chin looked over at them. "What did you guys find?"

"Well, between Charlie and Max, we figure we're dealing with somebody pretty high-up and intelligent. There were no fingerprints left at the murder scene or in the tossed bedroom, and the killer used a regular 9 mil. The DNA swabs from Holden's hands showed he drew some blood, but no DNA matches in the system."

"Somebody who's never committed a crime," Chin confirmed.

"But the family's well known to the HPD because of their charity work," Steve said, gesturing to make his point. "Whoever this person is, he had to know he would be taking on the HPD if he took them on."

"Whatever Holden had on him was that good," Danny replied. "Either that, or he's high up enough he can get off even if HPD collared him."

* * *

><p>"Billie likes animals," Grace commented from her place in the backseat of her father's car. She looked down at her rabbit, then back out of the window, watching the passing sights.<p>

"What kind?" Danny asked from the driver's seat.

"Furry ones."

They rode in silence, and then "You're quiet," Danny commented as he drove along, peering at his daughter in his backseat. "You OK, monkey?"

"Did Billie's dad do something bad?"

"Not that we know of," Danny said, frowning, glancing at his daughter in the rearview mirror. "Why?"

"So, the person chasing Billie is a bad guy?"

"Why do you say that?"

"She told me kepolo was going to kill her and her mother." Grace looked back at the rabbit sitting in her lap.

Danny yanked the wheel, pulling over to the shoulder. He turned around to look at his daughter. "What did Billie tell you?"

"I asked her why she was there - at the office," Grace explained. "She said her daddy's coming to get her." She's didn't seem to believe it. "She then said kepolo's going to kill her mommie if she tells." She paused. "What's kepolo?"

"It's the devil."

"Oh," Grace replied. "The devil's chasing her?"

"She's most likely having nightmares or bad dreams. That's all."

"But why not?"

Danny frowned. "Why not what?"

"Why don't you believe her?" Grace asked, frowning.

Danny looked at her very hard for a long moment.

* * *

><p>"I'm not exactly up for a late-night chat," Steve snarked as he answered his phone. He set it on speaker, then held it in his hand as he made a turn of the steering wheel.<p>

"Shut up and listen," Danny retorted, pacing outside on the driveway of Rachel's home. "I just dropped Grace off at Rachel's. She said something that made me think. We've been treating Billie's comment about this - kepolo - as her getting spooked. What if it's real?"

"What are you talking about?" Steve braked at a stop sign.

"Devils aren't real. Don't kid me, Danny."

"People smarter than you and more trained in theology would disagree with you, but I'm not here for that discussion. Look, when a child says he or she's being abused, we normally believe them. However they describe it, it's not normally a lie. Not normally."

"You're saying a devil really spooked her." Steve paused, frowning. "At HPD?"

"Look, all it could be is simply somebody identifying themselves as 'kepolo', telling her his name's 'kepolo' and if she talks he'll kill her."

"Talks about what?"

"I don't know. You said she was the only one in the house at the time of the murder," Danny replied. "Perhaps they're trying to scare her into silence."

"She's three, Danny," Steve replied, driving to the left lane to pass another car. "What could she possibly be able to say about her father's murder? This isn't a very reliable witness."

"Even if she doesn't actually know anything, this punk will kill her if he THINKS she knows something," Danny replied.

Steve stared out at the road for a few seconds, then swung his car around at the first intersection.

_TBC_


	4. Chapter 4

**Ho'ike**  
>by Sammie<p>All notes in first part.<p>

Thank you to all who have read up to this point, and a special thanks to those who took the time to review!

* * *

><p>"Until we get back that video and figure out who might have talked to Billie, you'll be here," Steve replied as he let her and Billie in, then went to shut the door and lock it. "It's safe."<p>

"I'm not safe in my apartment?" Kono asked, turning to look at him. In her arms, Billie yawned and then laid her head back on the cop's shoulder.

"i'm not going to put an entire apartment building at risk because of a witness in one apartment," Steve pointed out. "I have a single home, with the neighbors at some distance."

"Good point."

He led her up the stairs before opening the door to a a clean but unused room. "I'll let you stay here. Large queen bed; private, full master bath. It'll be easier for you, because of - " he waved at the sleepy child.

Kono looked around, and Steve watched as something clicked in her mind as she took in the pictures and decor. She looked at him briefly but said nothing. "If you're sure," she said quietly.

He gave a mirthless smile. "It's not like my parents are getting any use out of the bedroom any more," he replied, and she didn't answer.

"Want to go to bed now, keiki?" Kono asked gently, putting a hand on the child's back.

"Not sweepy." Followed by a yawn.

"OK," Kono pretended to agree. "I have to go get some things downstairs, so will you wait here for me?"

"'K." Kono set her on the bed, arranging her with her toys, and pulled a light blanket over her. Billie sat on the bed without protest, leaning on the pillows, and fell asleep almost instantly.

Kono gave her a peck on the forehead, then followed Steve out of the room and downstairs. "I'm going to need some things for her, though - so I have to go to the store. I'll also need a small step-stool for the bathroom, if you have one."

"In the garage; my dad made it for me and my sister. Come on." Steve trotted towards the garage, holding the door open for his teammate to enter and then flicking on the light. She gave a small whistle as they entered the garage. "Great car, right?" he grinned.

"Awesome car!" Kono corrected as she walked around it slowly, drinking in the sight of the classic. "Mercury Marquis. What year?"

"'74."

"Gorgeous," Kono murmured, passing her hand just an inch above the hood, before stooping to peek into the windows before popping up over the hood to grin at her boss. "You should have shared that you had this beauty."

"I did share!"

Kono frowned, her brow furrowing, before a thought suddenly occurred to her. "Is this the 'spawn of Satan' Danny keeps referring to?"

"'Spawn of Satan'?" Steve looked insulted.

Kono just laughed, then bent back over to look inside the driver's side, admiring the interior. "Jersey just can't appreciate beauty when he sees it. Does it drive now? 'Cause if it doesn't, I swear I'll work on it. For free."

"A woman after my own heart," Steve joked. "Where have you been all my life?"

"In jail for stealing this car," Kono returned, not even taking her eyes off of it. "May I?"

He grinned and nodded, and before he was even done, she had the driver's side door open and was inside. Steve came around to lean in the driver's side, an amused grin on his face. "Like it?"

"I do. My grandfather had a first generation Marquis." Kono's eyes twinkled as she ran her hand across the dashboard.

The doorbell rang, and Steve climbed the stairs out of the garage. "Look up on that back shelf for the step-stool," he instructed as he departed. He reached the front door, wiping his hands, and then swung open the door, blinking a moment in surprise.

Catherine smiled, giving him a small wave.

He blinked, then a guilty look crossed his face. "Catherine." He blinked. "I'm sorry. I totally forgot. How'd you get here?"

"Cab."

"Why didn't you call me?" Steve frowned.

"I did."

Steve checked his phone, his face twisted even more. "Sorry."

She just waved it off with a small smile as he took her bag. "I thought you had off work today," she commented.

"I did, but the governor asked us to take this case."

"Boss, I found the stool, but I'm also going to need to run out and get some other things from the store," came a voice from downstairs, and then footsteps on the stairs leading back up to the house. "Do you want anything while I'm out?" Kono appeared, the stool in her hands. "Oh, hi." The cop stood in the doorway, looking towards the front door, as Catherine turned to look at Steve, an eyebrow raised.

The Hawaiian looked at her boss, then at the tall brunette, then back at her boss. Steve groaned to himself as he watched understanding - and a great deal of mischief - cross his teammate's face. She turned back to Catherine. "I'm Kono," she greeted with a merry grin, her hand extended. "Kalakaua. I work for the 5-0."

"Catherine Rollins," the Navy woman replied, returning the friendly smile with one of her own.

"Pleasure to meet you," Kono grinned, her eyes dancing in delight. "Sorry. Boss keeps his private life pretty private. It's GREAT to meet you."

Steve glared at her. Kono ignored it.

"It's finally nice to get to meet somebody from the work that so dominates his life," Catherine replied, smiling genuinely.

"I'll, uh, leave him to explain," Kono replied with a cheeky grin. Catherine looked over at Steve just long enough to see the man shoot a look of betrayal at the departing woman. "I'm leaving Billie," Kono now said to her boss. "She's asleep upstairs in the room."

"I'll take care of her." Steve nodded as Kono trotted out the door.

Catherine turned to Steve, a patiently bemused look under an arched eyebrow.

"It's a long story."

"I've got the time."

* * *

><p>"Thanks for stopping by before you left," Charlie replied as the cop came in. "I wasn't sure if anybody was left over at 5-0."<p>

"Just me," Chin replied. He leaned over, resting his elbows on the desktop as he looked at the images on the computer monitor. "So what is it?"

"I looked through the things Kono brought over from Holden's office. These two stood out." Charlie held up two evidence bags, one of a small notepad and the other a small bottle. "Care to pick a door?"

"We'll start with the door on the left, Mr. Fong."

Charlie nodded. "This was pretty simple. The bottle was found on the floor under the desk - seemed to have dropped off and rolled under the desk."

"OK," Chin drew out. "Not his?"

"I checked with Max." Charlie crossed his arms. "Holden wore disposable lenses. On his suggestion, I tested the contents of the bottle." He held up the bottle between his fingers. "This is a solution for rigid gas permeable contacts."

"Somebody was trying to blind him?" Chin asked doubtfully.

"Unlikely."

"The name on on the bottle is his, though, isn't it?" Chin asked.

Charlie shook his head. "No, but the name's smudged. It'll take me some time to clean it up."

"And the notepad?"

"This was on his desk, by the phone."

"It's blank," Chin frowned, then held it up to the light. "Seems whatever he was writing on top was pressed through. What does your analysis say?"

"I went for the simplest way first." Charlie held up a pencil rubbing, and Chin chuckled. "This brings up deepest imprint."

"In other words, the words from the sheet right above."

"Yeah." Charlie held up the rubbing. "All I can get is a capital 'B', followed by a capital 'L', 'O', 'N', but that's all I can figure out from here. I then ran it through a computer recognition program, but the text's all jumbled."

"As good a start as any," Chin said. "Thanks."

* * *

><p>"Steve." Catherine poked him in the side. "Steve, listen."<p>

They were sitting outside in his backyard - more like she was sitting, and he was lying with his head in her lap, enjoying the dusk settling in. Over the sounds of the water and the street, Steve made out soft crying. He sat up and looked at Catherine, then swore slightly before bolting up the stairs to his parents' old room. "Billie?"

The little girl lay curled up in bed, huddled under the thin quilt, her cheeks stained with tears. "Wan' my mommie. Daddy." Hiccups.

"Billie, you know they can't be here right now." Steve crossed the room, sitting down on the edge of the bed.

"Wan' Auntie Kono," she sobbed.

"Auntie Kono went to the store," Steve replied, carefully placing his hand against her forehead. Not hot. "What's wrong?"

"My tummy hurts." Fresh tears. "An' I had bad dreams."

Steve looked around and saw Catherine in the door. She just smiled, then waved at him to take care of it.

"OK." He took a deep breath. The little girl hugged her animals, one in each arm, looking at him with teary blue eyes. "OK." He gently pulled back her quilt. "Did you see something scary outside?"

She shook her head.

He gently pushed the hair out of her face and then looked at her awkwardly, not know what to say. "Do you want me to rub your belly?"

"'K."

He gently rubbed her stomach, pressing firmly but softly. "How'd you get a stomachache? Did you eat something bad?"

"No."

"OK. Just lie still 'til Auntie Kono comes back." He continued to rub. Catherine slipped away quietly. The child's tears slowly stopped, and the little girl settled down into a more peaceful, content state. He smiled gently at her. "Feelin' better?" He got a nod, and he continued to rub gently.

After a moment, a curious voice. "Do you have a picture on your arm?"

"What?"

"A blue picture on your arm?" Billie used her panda's nose to jab at the bottom of his tattoo on his bicep.

Steve frowned, then looked at his tattooed arm. He quickly pulled his sleeve further down. "Don't worry about it."

"Is it a picture?" she repeated curiously. Catherine, who had returned, coughed to hide a laugh.

"Yes."

The little girl thought for a moment. "A flower?" She perked up.

He stared at her with a poker face, even as he could hear Catherine chuckling behind him. "Yes," Steve lied as steadily as he could. "It's a flower."

There was a throat clearing at the doorway, and then Catherine came in. "Sweetie?" she asked gently, holding up the small paper box. "Did you eat some coco puffs?" She opened the box to show Steve.

Steve stared at the nearly empty box, then turned to the kid. "How many did you eat?" His voice rose a notch. Catherine jabbed him. The little girl's bottom lip trembled, and her blue eyes took on a worried look as she clutched her animals more tightly. He tried again. "Billie, how many did you eat?" he asked in a quieter tone.

"Seven," she said in a small voice.

"Sev - !" Steve started to glare, but Catherine poked him. He took a deep breath, then turned to the toddler. "Didn't Auntie Kono say you could only have one? When did you eat the other ones?"

"I eated seven when you was outside wif the lady," she said guiltily.

"You - you came down the stairs and got on the chair and opened the box and ate seven more?" Steve asked, his voice rising.

"Steve," Catherine said warningly.

The pair of big blue eyes filled with tears. "I's sorry," she whimpered. "Are you mad?"

"I'm disappointed, yes. And Kono will be, too, when I tell her."

The little girl looked distressed. "I's sorry."

"I think your stomachache's punishment enough. When did you come downstairs, again?"

"When you's wif the lady. You said you liked her shampoo, and she said she 'oped you liked more'n the shampoo, and you said - "

"OK." Steve cut her off. He hoped the kid didn't repeat this to anybody else. Heck. He might not be able to tell Kono about the coco puffs if the kid was just going to blurt out everything else. Suddenly, he looked at her again. "You heard all of that? How long were you downstairs?"

"I can hear yous when I was on the stairs."

"How loud were we speaking?" Steve asked, frowning, as he turned to Catherine.

"Not very, I don't think."

Steve turned back to the little girl, his brow furrowed unconsciously in his aneurysm face, the gears turning slowly in his head.

The little girl's mouth turned down. "Are you still mad?" she asked.

* * *

><p>Kono bustled in, her arms full of bags. She kicked the door shut, then looked around sheepishly to make sure her boss hadn't seen, before locking up and setting the alarm. She headed into the kitchen and set her bags down so she could start putting things away.<p>

She jumped as Steve suddenly appeared and caught her by the forearm. "She heard everything."

"What?" She paused. "Who?"

"Billie. She's got good senses and a good memory. She most likely heard what happened to her father."

Kono straightened, studying the man doubtfully. "Boss, she's three."

Steve held up the ship drawing. "Look at this picture." Kono looked, but then shrugged at him, confused. "I asked her to draw this for me - from memory."

"It's your sailing boat, in your office."

"She has the number of sails on each mast right," Steve replied. "And the number of masts right, too."

At that, he watched understanding cross her face. "You're sure."

"Think about it, Kono." Steve pulled her by the arm to the side, away from where Catherine was watching Billie and helping her with her a new picture. "She saw Danny's tie for less than a minute but told Grace she liked the blue stripes on it. Catherine and I were whispering down her and she heard everything. She could repeat it back to me."

Kono straightened, even as she thought. "We were at the doctor's," she murmured. "The doctor's koala, on her stethoscope. Billie noticed a worn patch the doctor hadn't."

Steve gave her a "See?" expression.

Kono looked to the living room, where Catherine was seated on the floor next to Billie, who was kneeling and drawing happily. She looked from the child back to her boss and then back to the little girl. "You want to question her," she said in confirmation.

"Yes. Just - I need you to keep her calm."

Kono paused, then nodded. "OK."

Catherine came in then, leading Billie by the hand. The little girl beamed when she saw Kono and then went running to her. "I'm sorry, Auntie Kono," the little girl said immediately. "I eated too many coco puffs."

Kono raised an eyebrow, looking expectantly at her boss. "She ate seven when she was supposed to be sleeping. I'll fill you in later." Steve cut in.

Kono swung the child up into her arms. "Yes, you ate too many."

"I's sorry," the little girl said, flinging herself into her caretaker's arms.

"I know you are." Kono gave her a big hug. "Now hang on while I put the groceries away."

"I'll do it," Catherine volunteered. "You and Steve have questions for her."

"Thanks," Kono replied, surprised, but adding a smile.

Catherine made quick work of the groceries, and she could hear them chatting a little in the living room. She came and stood in the doorway, watching the 'interrogation' go on.

Kono was seated on Steve's couch, the child in her lap, leaning against her. Billie had her large panda tucked under her arm. Steve had pulled up an ottoman and was sitting directly in front of them.

"Billie, honey, we need to ask you some questions," Kono said gently. "Just try your best to answer them, and if you don't know, that's OK. Just say, 'I don't know'."

"OK."

"It's about your daddy," Kono continued. "Is that OK?"

The little girl's smile disappeared. "OK," she said uncertainly.

"Do you remember what happened that night when your daddy put you in the little room?" Steve asked. "What were you doing before your dad put you in that room?"

"We's reading."

"When?"

"'Fore bed." She paused. "We's - we's reading _Goodnight, Moon_."

"I love that book, too," Kono said. A smile crossed the little girl's face.

"Do you remember what time it was?" Steve asked.

"'Fore bed," she repeated.

Clearly that wasn't going to get them a solid time. "Do you remember what happened?"

"A car drived up. Peoples was talking." She paused. "Outside."

"And what happened next?"

"Daddy picked me up, and we looked out the window."

"Did you notice anything?"

Billie thought for a moment. "He had shiny shoes."

Steve made to ask another question, but Kono cut him off. "What kind of shiny, Billie?"

"Dey's shiny in the lights."

"The walkway lights," Steve murmured, and Kono nodded. "Where they shiny all over?"

"Uh-huh."

"Did the shoes have laces?"

Billie blinked in confusion.

"Did the shoes have strings, Billie?" Kono rephrased it. "Or did it not have strings?"

"Yes. Strings." Billie nodded vigorously.

"Do you know what color the shoes were?"

Billie paused, then blinked. "Um."

Kono carefully picked up the box of crayons that Billie had been using to draw and opened it up. "Can you point to the color?"

Billie pointed to the black crayon.

"Did you see who was wearing them?" Steve prodded gently.

"He was fat."

"Fat." All right. Next to her father, though, most people would look fat. "Do you remember anything special about what he was wearing?"

"He had a shiny - 'fing on his hand."

Steve thought for a moment. The driveway was on the left side of the house when facing the front door from the street, so to get from the driveway to the front door meant that the killer had to walk with his left side towards the front windows, so Billie most likely saw his left hand. He held out his left hand and arm. "Can you tell me where it was?"

Billie pointed at his fingers.

"It was a little shiny thing?"

She nodded.

"Not here?" Steve asked, pointing towards his wrist to simulate a watch.

She shook her head.

"Did you remember anything he was wearing? His pants" Steve pointed to his own shorts "or his shirt?" he pointed to the tee-shirt he was wearing.

"Shirt," Billie imitated, pointing at her own top.

"Shirt. Do you remember what color it was?"

Billie pointed to the green crayon.

"OK, good. Do you remember anything else about him?"

Billie thought for awhile, then shook her head. Her mouth turned down in a disappointed pout.

"OK, let's try this. Did he have short hair?"

There was a long pause, and then the little girl said quietly, "Dunno."

"OK. Did he wear glasses?"

The same thing - a long pause, and then a distressed, "Dunno."

"Did he have a long face or a round face?" Steve could see Kono shifting uncomfortably and Billie getting agitated. "That's OK," Steve soothed gently, deciding to move on. "How many people did you see?"

"Lots."

"What happened after that?"

"Daddy telled me to be very quiet, and he putted me in the room, and he saided to be quiet, and he'd come get me." The little girl's voice began to tremble. "Daddy didn't come."

Kono gently hugged her, giving her a small kiss on her hair as she rubbed her back.

Steve paused for a moment. "Tell me what the people and your dad talked about."

"Dey's argued. Daddy telled them to go 'way. They used big words."

Steve just smiled. "That's all right. Did they say their names?"

The little girl shrugged. "Daddy saided one man was Bruce."

"Bruce," Steve repeated. "They talked?"

Billie nodded.

"That's the best lead we've gotten," Kono murmured.

"Anything else?"

Billie shook her head. "Dey was" she paused "powh" she imitated, and Catherine could see the other woman wince. Gunshots, even if the child didn't realize it. "Then they ran into the house."

"They didn't find you."

Billie shook her head.

"Billie, I need you to think very hard. Did this man your daddy talked to - did he sound like kepolo?"

The little girl straightened, then blinked, and then started to tremble.

"Billie?"

"Uh-huh," she said, shaking. "Kepolo's gonna kill us."

"OK, OK. That's it. He's not going to get you or your mommie. I promise." Two teary blue eyes looked at him. "Billie, trust me. I promise I won't let him kill you or your mommie." He paused. "Do you believe me?"

She blinked, then nodded.

"OK." Steve gave her a kiss on her forehead as he stood up. "You did a good job." Billie wiped away tears. "You OK?"

She was crying again, and then hiccuped. She leaned into Kono's arms, and there was silence for a moment, even as Steve got up to document the information. He had reached the living room exit when the small voice reached him: "Daddy didn't come."

Steve stopped and turned, looking back at her. The small child sat in Kono's lap, hiccuping between tears. He came back and pushed the ottoman away, kneeling in front of the couch, turning the little girl so she was looking straight at him. "Billie, I know your daddy didn't come, but he wanted to."

"'e pwomised." Her breathing ratcheted up, as if she were going to cry again.

"Billie, listen to me." Steve looked straight into her eyes and was overwhelmed by the sadness and the distress in them. "He didn't come because he couldn't come. They - the men that came to your house - hurt him."

"Boss - " Kono started, but Steve ignored her.

The little girl's expression suddenly changed from one of betrayal to one of fear. "Daddy?"

"Billie, he would have come to get you, just as he promised. He couldn't. But he would never leave you by yourself. He loves you. You understand that?" Billie nodded.

"Daddy hurt?"

"Yes," Steve replied bluntly. "But Auntie Kono and I - and Gracie's dad, and Uncle Chin - we're going to catch these guys."

"Did kepolo hurt him?" Billie's voice was barely audible.

"Billie, look at me." The little girl peered at him over her panda. "We're going to find this kepolo. I promise." He looked intently at the little girl. "Do you trust me?"

She nodded.

Steve pecked her on the forehead. Billie wasn't talking any more, her arms around Kono's neck and her little face buried in the officer's shoulder. Kono gave him a worried look, and Steve just nodded. They were done for today.

Kono tried to get up, the extra weight and unwieldiness putting her back down on the couch. Steve helped pull her up, and she quickly maneuvered over to the rocking chair Steve had pulled from the garage. It stood near some of the big windows in the house. Kono rocked quietly, murmuring to the small child, who was slowly relaxing.

He stood at the other side of the room, watching her rock the three-year-old to sleep.

"Penny for your thoughts," Catherine murmured into his ear, wrapping her arms around Steve from behind.

He startled slightly. "Billie reminds me of Mary Ann, a little. A long time ago."

Catherine just smiled. After a moment, she said softly, "Was it wise to tell her about her father?"

"Which is worse: a child who finds out her father isn't Superman and can't come, or for a child to think that her father could come but doesn't love her enough to do so?" Catherine got quiet. "I'd rather she doubt her father's ability than doubt her father's love."

She thought about that one, then nodded. She smiled, and he leaned over to peck her on the cheek.

* * *

><p>Catherine awoke, disoriented, before she realized she was in Mary Ann's bedroom. (She had told Steve in no-nonsense terms that they each were certainly sleeping alone when his coworker and a small child were in the house.) She wasn't sure what had awakened her. She could hear noise in the hall and quietly slipped out of bed, opening the door a tiny crack to peer out.<p>

She slipped out and looked into Steve's bedroom, which was empty, its covers tossed aside as if he had left in a hurry. She continued down the hall, and as she approached, she heard the little girl's sobs and hitching breaths.

Kono nearly ran into her as she came out, her hands with the towels which smelled of urine. She stopped short, her eyes widening ever so slightly, and tugged at her tank-top. "I'm sorry," she said. "Did we wake you?"

"Oh, it's all right." She knew it had happened once already, right before the adults had been headed for bed. "Is Billie OK?"

"Wet the bed this time," Kono replied shortly as she tossed the items into the basket.

"I'll take care of it," Catherine offered. At the other woman's hesitation, she repeated, "it's OK. I'll take care of it. You get back to Billie."

The other woman smiled gratefully. "Thank you," she murmured, then disappeared back into the room.

Catherine picked up the basket and started heading towards the stairs. As she looked back, she could see the door open, and the small child now dressed in one of Kono's tee-shirts. She clutched her stuffed animals in her fists, her arms wrapped around Steve's neck, her right cheek resting on his right shoulder. Every once in awhile, her breathing would catch between her now-quieting sobs, and her entire body would shake as she tried to draw a full breath.

Steve was standing in the room in his shirt and shorts, fully awake and alert - and frowning. He conversed with Kono, whose arms were folded across her loose tank-top and shorts pyjamas. At one point, she moved to his side to talk to Billie, and the small girl reached for her. Steve handed her over, then moved to re-cover the bed with fresh sheets.

He came out a little later, holding a light quilt. "Kono mentioned you were up. I'm sorry if we woke you," he apologized quietly as he waited his turn by the washing machine.

"It's all right." Catherine looked at him. He looked tired. "Billie having nightmares?"

"Third time tonight." Steve rubbed his eyes. "I hear her crying. It's kept Kono up all night."

"Are the nightmares about what happened?"

"Seem to be. Flashes, normally." Steve yawned. "Sorry."

"Go back to sleep," she said gently. "I'll take care of this. Go get her and Kono something to drink."

Steve gave her an exhausted smile, then kissed her on the cheek.

_TBC_


	5. Chapter 5

**Ho'ike**  
>by Sammie<p>

All notes in first part.

Thank you to everyone who has been reading and reviewing!

For anybody who wishes to see the picture which inspired Billie, the link is below; copy and paste it into the address bar and remove the spaces. It also has the actors whom I picture as her parents.  
>rosefern. bravehost. com FF/ Ho'ike_pics. html

* * *

><p>Steve woke suddenly to the sunlight streaming in his bedroom window. He flopped back down; he'd had an exhausting night. Billie had woken him up three times with crying; she apparently had been tossing and turning all night, keeping Kono up. After he'd finally gotten to bed after the bed-wetting, he'd ended up with nightmares. In them he was always running, and in various scenarios Billie, Kono, Catherine, Chin, or Danny were getting chased, shot, blown up, knifed - take your pick. Not restful.<p>

There wasn't any point in trying to get more sleep. He sat up and swung himself out of bed and changed to go swimming. He peeked in on Catherine, who was still asleep, and then found his parents' bedroom empty. He frowned. No panicking - yet.

He made his way noiselessly down the stairs, his gun poised. There didn't appear to be any signs of break-ins, and his "trusty" alarm system (which, he thought sourly, had gotten hacked once and then didn't ring when Kamekona came to make him "breakfast") was still on. He quickly set it so it would allow him outside.

Kono was in a black, racing competition swimsuit, and Billie was dressed in a little pink swimsuit with a ruffle around it. Kono had her up in the air, Billie lying on her stomach across her forearms; the woman was zooming her toward the water like an dolphin, going up and down. Billie was smiling and giggling - the first time since the night before. "PLAY!"

"Shh. Auntie Catherine and Uncle Steve are still sleeping," Kono whispered, stopping what she was doing.

"Play, Auntie Kono," the little girl whined, lowering her voice, then saw Steve. "Hi, Uncle Steve!" she beamed.

"Well, hello, you." He smiled as the small child affectionately hugged his knees.

"Morning, boss. Hope we didn't wake you," Kono commented as Billie caught her hand again, then took one of Steve's in her other small hand, and started to pull them as hard as she could towards the water.

"Didn't sleep well." He regretted it when he said it, as Kono looked at him guiltily and apologized. "Wasn't you or Billie. Just my own imagination running wild in the worst case scenarios." He looked around. "Was it wise to bring her out here?" he asked. He didn't expect an answer, and it wasn't rhetorical.

She winced. She clearly hadn't thought of whether or not she should have brought the little girl outside of the house. "I didn't think," she muttered, stumbling a bit as Billie pulled again. "She just really wanted to play in the water, and after last night - " she shrugged as she trailed off.

"We ought to be OK right now, this close to the house." Steve nodded at her swimming outfit, even as Billie huffed and puffed, trying to drag them towards the water. "Not your normal."

She gave him a look. "What if you went to Catherine's home and saw one of her coworkers walking around her house without his shirt on?" He thought about it, then acknowledged her point with an amused smile and a brief tilt of his head. "It's not fair to her. I think Billie and I have already interefered with the weekend you two planned, without making it worse by having me in a bikini at your house."

"Play!" Billie demanded, pulling at both of their hands again, but keeping her voice down. "Wanna play," she whispered pitifully.

"Want to take over?" Kono picked up the little girl and deposited her in Steve's arms.

Billie turned to Steve and beamed. "Play!"

"Demanding little snot, aren't you."

* * *

><p>"Duke," Danny greeted as he slid into the booth.<p>

"Danny." Lukela's eyes flickered around the diner. "Thanks for meeting me here." He waved over a waitress for a fresh cup of coffee and a refill for himself.

"Sure." Danny leaned forward. "Something wrong?"

"They wanted to meet somewhere that wasn't headquarters. They're just coming off the late shift."

"Who's 'they'?"

After a moment came two members of the HPD, dressed in plainclothes. "Duke."

Lukela exited the booth, greeting both, then slid into the booth next to Danny as the two others seated across from them. "John Iaukea, Robbie Paahao, HPD. Danny Williams, 5-0," he introduced.

"What's this about?" Danny asked sharply.

"It's about Holden," Lukela replied, and Danny sat up a little. After both settled in, and they had relative privacy, the man seated next to Danny nodded to the new arrivals.

"About six weeks ago we approached Travis privately," began Iaukea. "Asked for his help."

"What could he do that HPD couldn't?" Danny asked.

"He has ties to the wealthier classes on the island," Paahao replied. "We were hoping he could find something we could investigate."

"What was this about?"

"A year ago, Miranda Akina had mentioned building a development - low-cost housing, especially for the teachers and the cops on the island. You know what living expenses are around here, especially in light of our salaries."

"I can sympathize," Danny chuckled.

"Then everything kept stalling and stalling."

"So you asked Travis to look into it," Danny concluded. The two nodded.

* * *

><p>Catherine wasn't completely surprised to find that she was the last one up, but she had to admit to a tiny bit of relief - which she quashed as unprofessional - when she saw Kono alone in the kitchen. The woman moved around the space with an ease of somebody familiar with it, and she wore a light wrap over what was competition swimming gear. Evidently 5-0 spent a lot of time at Steve's place. "Morning."<p>

The other woman turned, and Catherine found herself looking at what was a smile - genuine, by all her instincts. And a little sheepish, but the Navy woman hadn't figured that one out yet. "Hi. I hope you don't mind eggs."

"As long as there's no Spam."

The other woman laughed, and Catherine smiled. It was easy to be around her. "I won't attempt to give you the native Hawaiian 'nectar of the gods' speech. No, no Spam."

Catherine chuckled, then moved to the fridge to get herself a glass of juice. Outside, she could hear the hose going, and the little girl squealing with laughter. She looked out the window to see Steve hosing himself off and then squirting the small child at different intervals. When the other woman cleared her throat nervously, the lieutenant turned.

"I'm really sorry," the other woman said quietly, her eyes darting everywhere but not looking at Catherine. "About all of this." She looked at Catherine sheepishly. "I was going to take Billie home with me, but I live in an apartment complex, and so the guys said it wouldn't be safe for the other residents. So boss - " she quickly cut off her rambling, replacing it with a more neutral, "it was decided it was better to be here, since boss has a single house with an alarm system."

Catherine nodded. So he HAD forgotten. She smiled a "I'm onto him" smile. "He ordered you to come, didn't he."

The other woman turned red, caught out. "Yes?" At Catherine's amused smile, she quickly added, "I'm sure he would have remembered his plans, but the governor called and wanted us on the case, so when he gets into - "

" - work mode he forgets everything else," Catherine finished with a knowing chuckle.

The other woman smiled sheepishly. "Again," she replied, her tone genuinely apologetic. "I'm sorry."

"AUNTIE KONO!" came the cheerful voice. Both women turned as the youngster came running in, launching herself into a big hug around the younger woman's legs. Steve greeted Catherine with a quick peck.

"Hey, keiki." Kono's voice was warm and affectionate. "Did you have fun?"

"I a'most catched a fish," she announced.

"We might've been eating fish for br - " Steve started, and Catherine watched as Kono shook her head vigorously at him.

The Navy woman looked down at the little girl, who had a horrified expression on her face. "Don' wanna eat the fishie," she gasped, as Kono closed her eyes, defeated. "Don' wanna eat the fishie," she begged, throwing herself at Kono's legs.

"There's no fish for breakfast. I promise," Kono sighed. Catherine watched as she put one hand on the child's head, then turned her around. "Say hello to Auntie Catherine."

"H'llo." The little girl and smiled shyly at the brunette, then hid her face in her caretaker's leg.

Catherine smiled, her expression soft. She crouched down to the girl's level. "Are you feeling better this morning?" she asked gently.

"Yeah," the little girl said bashfully.

"Aren't you glad now you DIDN'T catch the fish?" Catherine whispered to her, with a wink. Billie smiled, comforted, and nodded. Kono grinned, suppressing a laugh, and Catherine would have bet a hundred bucks that Steve had some kind of growly expression on his face.

"OK. Breakfast." Kono pointed towards the table, and the little girl bounced off to her chair.

"What happened to your shoe? C'mere, kid." Steve crouched down, sitting back on his haunches, and placed the little girl on his lap, her back to his front. She stuck her feet out in front, a small sandal dangling from a foot. "How'd you manage to get this velcro off? I just put it on."

"I don' know," the little girl intoned, as puzzled about the mess as Steve was, her focus on her sandals as Steve readjusted the shoe on her foot.

"You're going to hurt yourself running around with your shoes that loose," he commented as he finished. "All right. Up you go." He set her back on her feet before he swung her up and set her in the booster seat.

Kono set a few dishes onto the table as Billie drank some of her milk. Steve waved for Catherine to take a seat, and the woman watched with interested puzzlement as the tot carefully arranged her stuffed toys around her.

"Why does she always separate her panda and her lion?"

* * *

><p>It had been another hour of talking, after which the two cops got up to head home. Lukela paid the bill out of his own pocket - "think of it as a thank-you to the Holdens" - and he and Danny headed to the parking lot.<p>

"Thank you for coming, off the books," Lukela turned to him in the parking lot. "The guys don't want their doubts about Akina to get out if there's no justification for it."

"Akina's a bigshot on the island?" Danny asked.

"Very."

"No problem." Danny nodded, heading to his car, then turned. "You know, there's one thing I'm wondering."

"Of course."

"Why did you ask ME here?" Danny asked bluntly, his gaze coming up to pin down the older cop. When the other didn't answer, the blond shook his head in disgusted realization. "You don't trust Chin."

"It's not me," Lukela protested sharply. "Iaukea and Paahao requested you."

Danny held up a hand, as if about to comment, then gave a bitter laugh before stepping away and looking to the side, gathering his thoughts. He then got straight in Lukela's face. "You know Chin didn't do it," Danny hissed, jabbing his index finger into the other man's chest. "When you play along, you know that it'll just fuel what people think about him."

"I know he did not take the money," Lukela snapped. "But they refused to talk to anybody unless it was you." He sighed. "They saw your loyalty to Meka, and they know you are a good detective - without scandal. They trust you. So I agreed."

Lukela paused, rubbing his forehead in agitation. "I would give this information to Chin Ho in a heartbeat. But they wouldn't. When I weighed catching Travis's killer against possibly hurting Chin's feelings, I decided in favor of the former." The man looked at Danny. "I want to catch this person as much as you do."

"I fully intend to catch this killer," Danny replied, straightening and turning to his car, opening the car door. "And you go back and tell them I've got Kelly's back - a thousand percent." He got in and slammed his door shut.

* * *

><p>The long silence in the front of the truck was set off by only the quiet, off-key singing and chatter from the backseat. Still, Steve knew it was too good to last. His teammate was brimming with curiosity.<p>

"Catherine seems really nice."

"Uh-huh." He tried to be as gruff as possible to cut off the questions.

Beat. "So how come we haven't met her yet?"

Steve just tossed Kono an exasperated look, but she was grinning too much to care. "I mean, she's gorgeous, intelligent. She's a Navy woman, so she most likely kicks butt," Kono rattled off. "Why would you be ashamed of her? Unless she's got something embarrassing like a high-pitched giggle or a snorting laugh."

Steve gave her a look. "Do I look like somebody who'd date a woman with a high-pitched giggle?"

"I don't know," she replied cheekily. "Are you?"

"No, I'm not. And when I introduce Catherine to anybody is my business."

"Are you afraid Danny's going to steal her?" Kono joked. "She's got the same dark hair and dark eyes as his ex-wife."

"Wait, wait - " Steve's expression furrowed. "When have you seen Rachel?"

"Gracie showed me a photo."

"Gracie - when have you spent enough time with Danny for Gracie to show you a photo?" Steve asked suspiciously.

Kono just gave him a mysteriously cheeky shrug, complete with a teasing Mona Lisa smile.

"And - you - you actually think that somebody would prefer Danny over me," Steve replied incredulously. "Seriously?" he asked, his tone more uncertain now than before.

"Well - " Kono trailed off tantalizingly.

"Danny - Daniel Williams. You think women would prefer him over me," he repeated, his voice rising a notch in outrageous disbelief.

"I don't know what women prefer."

"You are one!"

"Yes, and there are 3 billion of us in the world. I can't speak for all of them."

"I don't need to know what 3 billion women think, just what this one sitting shotgun thinks."

"I like Uncle Danny!" piped up a voice from the back seat.

"Well, that's one vote for Danny," Kono laughed.

"Yeah, but she's three," Steve retorted. "And blonde!" Beat. "I want to know what you think."

"Isn't the question what Catherine thinks?" Kono pointed out, her eyes dancing with merriment.

"You let me worry about Catherine," Steve cut off, then glanced at Kono in suspicious puzzlement. "You SERIOUSLY think that Danny could outmatch me when it comes to women?"

"You don't think he's attractive to women? He was married."

"I think he's most likely...inexplicably...attractive to women. Just not...over me." Steve looked at her suspiciously. She just gave him an enigmatic shrug, a huge smile of amusement on her face, her dimples deepening. "I don't believe this."

"I think it's funny you're having a cargument with Danny when he's not even here."

"I am not having a - 'cargument'? Seriously?" Steve shot an irritated glance over at Kono, who just started laughing again. "Do you guys secretly name everything I do?" Suddenly, his voice grew even more suspicious. "It sounds like you've been hanging out with Danny."

"I have not been hanging out with Danny. That was Chin's word. You forget that you put him in surveillance too often for him not to overhear you two at some point."

"We do not have 'carguments'." Steve glared at the road. D-ng. He was a decorated lieutenant commander and a SEAL, and he was pouting like a three-year-old.

From the back seat, the actual three-year-old giggled.

"Is Uncle Steve funny?" Kono smiled from the front seat.

"Yeah," giggled the little girl, who then kicked Steve's seat cheerfully.

Great. Steve started to look in the rearview mirror at the little child sitting behind him when Kono warned, "Don't show her your aneurysm face."

"I do not have an aneurysm face."

"Well, at least you don't have 'constipation face', which is allegedly what I have."

"Danny tells you you have 'constipation face' and you defend him?"

"I'm not defending him. I'm just saying that your carguments are quite funny. That's the fodder that gets CBS sitcoms off the ground - two bruddahs who argue about everything."

"I'm afraid to know which of those two irritating Harpers you think I am."

"Why?" Kono grinned cheekily. "Don't you want to be 'WINNING!'? Not enough tiger blood?"

He looked over at her, his expression a mix of disgust and disbelief. "No! No tiger blood."

"You could settle for another type of animal," Kono suggested innocently.

"I like bunnies!" announced the passenger in the backseat.

"There you go. You can be WINNING! with bunny blood," Kono deadpanned, her eyes dancing with barely contained mirth.

He looked at her with amused exasperation as he parked the car. "You're enjoying this."

She smiled, her dimples deepening, and made no effort to contradict that statement. "I - " She stopped as her phone began to ring. "Hey, Danny."

"What, he's calling you now?" Steve groused as he hopped out of his truck and opened the backseat door. "All right. C'mon, kid," he muttered.

A pair of big blue eyes turned to him, and the small child beamed and reached her arms out to him, and Steve growled to himself. He did not do cute, he reminded himself as he unbuckled the little girl from her booster seat.

"Do you have your toys?"

She held up her lion and then her panda.

"She's coming in - 1:30 pm, American Airlines, Honolulu International," Kono recited, scribbling it down on a small notepad from her pocket. "OK. Got it."

"OK." He picked her up and set her on the ground, then turned to shut the door and then suddenly looked down when he felt small arms around his legs. When he looked down the little girl smiled up at him as she hugged him.

"Want to ride?" he asked before he knew what he was saying, and he lifted her up to ride on his shoulders. A small voice reminded him fruitlessly that he did not do cute.

"Yeah!" The three-year-old happily bounced her plush toys on his head.

"We'll be right there. Right." Kono hung up, then turned to him, about to speak, but stopping short when she saw him with the little girl perched on his shoulders.

"Don't say it," he said, pointing a finger at her as they headed towards the office.

* * *

><p>Charlie leaned against the desk at his lab, his back to the table, his head bowed as he listened intently. Danny stood nearby, his arms crossed, as Steve recounted what had happened last night.<p>

"Billie specifically said somebody promised to kill her, and that the voice who threatened her was the same as the voice of the man who came to her house," Steve continued. At this, both Danny and Charlie turned to look at him, concerned looks on their faces. "At HPD, she said he put his hand over her mouth and, my guess is, talked into her ear. So we're looking at somebody who was certainly at HPD - no other way to do all this."

"Did she describe his face, either from that night or yesterday afternoon?" Charlie asked.

"Billie can't remember. We talked to her last night, then tried drawing a picture with her this morning - nothing about the guy's face." Steve nodded to the camera. "Hopefully he's on this video, though."

Charlie called up the video on the computer. "Thankfully, since you were only here about an hour, we can narrow down the time."

"So we're sitting and waiting for something to happen onscreen?" Steve asked.

"We just sit and wait for something to happen onscreen," Charlie confirmed.

"Just like when Rachel rented 'The Notebook'," Danny snarked.

Charlie grinned, then handed them a packet of papers. "A list of everybody who checked in yesterday at the time you were here."

"Checked in?"

"All those who had been arrested who went through here, the officers who came in, and everybody who signed in to deliver stuff."

"Good. Who's allowed in?"

"Everybody. Governor's personal assistant, congressman's staffers, assistant to the secretary of the department of security, housing commissioner, ER doctors and nurses, reporters. Pizza delivery guy."

"Any camera in the break room?" Danny cut in.

"Nope."

"Who's allowed in the break room?" Steve asked.

Charlie shrugged with a mix of exasperation and sheepishness. "Governor's personal assistant, congressman's staffers, assistant to the secretary of the department of security, housing commissioner, ER doctors and nurses, reporters, pizza delivery guy," he repeated in the same tone as he had given the list earlier.

Danny pinched the bridge of his nose. "Tell me this isn't a government operation."

"All right. How many of these people did Holden would know?"

"My guess?" Charlie shrugged. "Governor's personal assistant, congressman's staffers, assistant to the secretary of the department of security, housing commissioner - "

" - everybody," Steve concluded with a pained expression.

"Sorry, brah." Charlie shrugged. "Travis Holden was really well known around here."

Steve paused. "Do we have any 'Bruce's on this list?"

"'Bruce'?" Charlie frowned, exchanging a look with Danny.

Steve nodded. "'Bruce'."

"Sure." Charlie held up the paper copy. "Got a couple here." He held up a copy of the list, and Steve and Danny scanned over his shoulder. His expression turned stony.

Steve instantly noticed. "What? What?"

"Well, there's a Bruce Lonoehu on here - CFO of Hawaiian National Bank," Charlie replied. "B-L-O-N."

* * *

><p>Kono set the folder back into the open filing cabinet drawer, then looked around Holden's office at the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. "He's got piles of papers and piles of electronic documents. Are we even going to be able to search all of them? We don't even know what we're looking for."<p>

"We have to try." Chin replied. His phone began to ring, and Billie, who was sitting at her father's desk drawing, held it up. "Thank you, Billie," he said to her with a grin, and she smiled. "Kelly," he answered the phone.

"Look for Hawaiian National Bank," Steve replied. "Bruce Lonoehu. L-O-N-O-E-H-U."

"Hawaiian National Bank." Kono got up, then quickly flipped through some folders in one of the filing cabinets before pulling something. "I saw something on it." She quickly tossed down the folder as she pulled out the papers. "He got a fax which had a letterhead with that."

"We'll bring it over," Chin said, then hung up before he came to join his cousin.

"Here's another." Kono scanned the page, then pulled another fax. "The fax numbers are the same."

Chin pulled out his phone and started doing a search. "The fax number's similar to the ones given for the bank's corporate offices - the first three digits of the number after the area code. This could be a private fax number for somebody at the bank."

"Chin." Kono's voice was tense.

Chin put his phone away, turning to look at his cousin, who turned to him, her jaw set.

Kono held up the cover sheet. "This says there's eight pages to this fax, including the cover sheet. There are only six here, including the cover sheet. It's the same thing with this fax - pages missing."

"How many faxes from this number are like that?"

"All three," Kono replied darkly, holding them up.

_TBC_


	6. Chapter 6

**Ho'ike**  
>by Sammie<p>All notes in first part.<p>

To my non-logged-in reviewers: thank you for taking the time to read and to review. It means a lot to writers to get reviews. :-)

Kono shows up a lot because (1) she's my favorite character :-) and (2) she (and Chin) doesn't get anywhere near the storylines Steve and Danny get on the show.

As for Steve's ineptness - while the "modern" man's supposed to be good with children, I find it a little, well, dishonest. Some men and some women just aren't that great with small children - they love them and enjoy them but just don't seem to remember what it was like to be that age. I found Steve's earlier incompetence (with the little girl asking if they were cops, and the boy with the hippo innertube) just hilarious, which is why it shows up here. He clearly likes Billie, he just doesn't know what to do with her. :-D

* * *

><p>"Smells good," Danny commented as he and Steve came into the office to find bags of food spread out by the tabletop computer. "I'm starved. What're we having?"<p>

"We picked up loco moco on the way back. There are some side dishes, too," Chin said as he came out of his office. "Hope you guys don't mind."

"Right now food in general just sounds good," Steve replied. "Can I have this plate?" He reached down for a small plastic plate sitting in front of the panda, which sat on its owner's left. Billie made a noise of protest.

"Nope. That's for the panda," Kono replied with a straight face as she contined to flip through the pages of evidence she was reading.

"The panda," Steve said in disbelief.

"Pandas have to eat," Chin said in a serious tone, the only evidence of his amusement the twinkle in his eye as he grabbed his chair.

"Pandas don't eat loco moco," Steve groused as he helped himself to his own plate and settled into a chair.

"Did you guys get anything?" Kono asked finally, setting her file aside to exchange it for her plate.

"Fong got us the surveillance video for HPD the day Billie was threatened, accompanied by a list of people who signed in to HPD," Danny said around his food. "We found a name which matches the one on Holden's notepad - Bruce Lonoehu." He swallowed. "Lonoehu spelled with L-O-N," he continued, looking at Chin. "Just like your notepad."

"Who is he?" Kono asked.

"Chief financial officer of the Hawaiian National Bank," Chin replied stonily, as Kono gave a low whistle. "Holden tangled with some bigshots." He paused. "Why was Lonoehu even at HPD?"

"Supposedly to drop papers off," Steve replied.

"Odd thing, sending a CFO to do a mail delivery," Kono commented.

"Agreed," Steve replied. "You two - question him right after lunch."

Kono nodded, then asked, "What about the rest of the Holden house?"

"Charlie said the crime scene unit went through everything. In the bedroom, there weren't any unknown fingerprints - just Travis Holden's, Billie's, or his wife's."

"How'd we get his wife's fingerprints?" Chin asked.

"Apparently Livy Holden's on record with the FBI," Steve explained with a grin. "She had to get security clearance for some of her reporting."

"So no fingerprints in the bedroom except theirs. That just means our killers were good," Kono thought aloud.

"A fragment of a fingerprint on the Gucci symbol - not enough for any match, and no fingerprints on Holden himself," Danny finished.

"DNA matches yet?"

"Not on the blood on his knuckles."

"So Lonoehu's our only lead."

"Our only good one, for now." Steve nodded. "What did you find on him?"

"Kono and I put in requests for info after you called, and that stuff's still coming. We just have some basics. Bruce Lonoehu, CFO of Hawaii National Bank." Chin clicked the photo up. "Native of the islands, been here for years. No record."

"Anything shady?"

"Nothing shady, either," Kono said. "Married. Two kids, one in high school, one at University of Hawaii - Manoa. Lonoehu's been with the bank since high school, worked his way up. Ethical. Nothing in his financial records."

"So not likely our killer," Danny muttered.

"Except we know the Hawaiian Bank was corresponding with Holden." Kono held up the papers. "Each fax sent over has a pile of - nothing papers. Information on random things. But in each fax, there are pages missing from the overall amount on the cover sheet."

"Where are the sheets?"

"That's where we don't know. We combed his office, every inch. We even tore up the carpet," Chin replied. "His boss wasn't too happy about that."

"The thing is," Kono put in, "the missing pages don't appear to affect the document itself. When you read the document, nothing's missing." She held up one fax. "Look. Page 3 here. This last line flows right into the text on page 7 here."

"There's no break in the content," Steve murmured. "But there are three pages missing in between, according to the fax's page numbering."

"Whoever's faxing the information over is hiding the information among the pages," Danny concluded.

"We got to find those sheets," Steve muttered.

"Perhaps this is our guy." Danny tossed his now empty plate in the trash. As he came back, he looked over Billie's shoulder. "Is that us?" he asked, crouching down so their faces were on the same level.

"Uh-huh." The little girl beamed, and held up the picture.

"Hm, you drew on Uncle Steve's commendation letter from the governor. Appropriate. Is that Uncle Chin with the big smile?" Billie nodded proudly. "And that's Auntie Kono?" The little girl nodded. "And I like the tie you drew me. Who's that with the frowny face?"

"Uncle Steve."

Kono and Chin ducked their heads down to hide their smiles as Danny smirked at the - case in point - frowning Steve. "That's pretty accurate," Danny said with a straight face, and Billie beamed. Steve glared some more. "Kiddo, you got marker all over you." He held up the child's hands and then her left arm, following the random swipes of blue all the way up.

Danny paused, then frowned. He cocked his head to the side, then pushed up the child's sleeve. "Kono."

"What?" She looked up from her food.

Danny turned the child to show her the large, blue, clumsily drawn flower on her left upper arm. The woman's eyes went wide, and Danny could have sworn he heard an un-adult-like squeak (if anybody would dare to suggest that Kono Kalakaua might squeak).

In one swift movement, she had Billie out of her seat; the child ran alongside the woman, struggling to keep up with the cop's long strides. "But why's can't I keep de fower?" she begged. "I wants a fwower on my awm."

"If your Mommie says you can have one, then you can draw one on later. Right now, Auntie Kono says no flowers anywhere."

"But Uncle Steve has one!" came the plaintive protest as the two disappeared out of the office bullpen. "He said-ed he gots a blue flower picture on his arm!"

As the sound of the upset tot's protests dissipated, the two men turned to Steve, looking intently at him. "Let's see that macho flower tat," Danny intoned with a smirk.

* * *

><p>"Hey. Sorry to call you in last minute." Charlie looked agitated, pacing his lab nervously as the twou cousins entered. "I wanted to make sure 5-0 got this right away."<p>

"No problem," Kono replied, sliding her hands into her jeans pockets. "What's going on?"

Charlie turned and picked up the bottle of contact lens solution. "You know this?"

"The bottle we found in Holden's office. The container has got cleanser for gas permeable lens, when Holden wore soft," Chin recited. "You were going to lift a name for us."

Charlie turned to his computer, where he brought up the image of the label. It had a Century Square pharmacy label with the letters "onoehu, Bru".

Chin and Kono exchanged looks.

* * *

><p>At the sound of feet shuffling yet again, Steve looked down next to him. Billie was standing - or rather, attempting to - next to Danny. She had been hopping with anticipation and couldn't hold still, and so now she had been relegated to standing by Danny, her right hand securely in the detective's left. She spoke quietly to herself, not at all perturbed to have no listeners, commenting on the different things that came into view.<p>

Steve looked at his watch. The announcement for the arriving American Airlines flight had sounded several minutes ago, but nobody had appeared yet.

"Here we go," Danny said after a few minutes.

Despite having looked at photos of Olivia Holden to make sure to identify her correctly, none were needed. "Mommie!" Billie came alive, starting to pull impatiently at Danny's hand.

"Stay still," Danny instructed. Both men scanned the area, eyes going back and forth. Billie instantly quieted, but Steve could feel her excitement radiating off of her.

"Mommie!"

This time, the woman in question came back in view, coming through the turnstile, and as soon as she was free and clear, Danny let the little girl go. She ran at top speed, bouncing up and down and not really running with a solid gait; her face was shining, her pigtails bobbing up and down. The woman let go of her rolling carry-on and wrapped up her daughter in her arms, giving her a big kiss. Billie was beaming and chattering away, clearly delighted to see her mother.

"I see your smile," Danny intoned to his partner. Both men stood, arms crossed, not looking at each other but watching Billie and her mother several feet away.

"I'm not smiling."

"You are so smiling."

"This is not a smile."

"I even see teeth."

Steve clamped his mouth shut.

* * *

><p>"Hi. We're looking for Mr. Lonoehu."<p>

"I'm sorry, but you'll need an appointment," the secretary apologized.

"Oh, I've got one." Kono, smiling sweetly, took out her badge and set it on the desk; she then slid it across the secretary's desk with her index finger.

"Right that way, third floor," the secretary indicated. "There's a directory in the elevator."

Chin and Kono crossed the floor of the bank and took the elevator up. They read the name off the directory, then headed for the CFO's office. Chin glanced at his cousin, then knocked.

"I'm sorry, but I'm booked today," Lonoehu's voice boomed from inside.

Chin opened the door anyhow, to find the CFO at his desk. He was a tall Hawaiian man, on the heavy side; he still had a full head of hair. He wore a light-colored suit with a blue shirt and a tie. Across the desk from him sat a tall, wiry white man. "Mr. Lonoehu?"

"Yes," he replied, his voice irritated, not even bothering to look up.

Chin held up his badge. "5-0. We'd like a few minutes of your time."

At that, Lonoehu looked up, his expression of irritation quickly changing to one of disbelief, anxiety, and possibly even fear.

"What is this about?" the other man rumbled, standing to his feet. "Frank Wheeler, CEO," he introduced himself. "What's going on?"

"We need to speak to Mr. Lonoehu privately, please, about an investigation."

Wheeler looked at Lonoehu, who looked at his desktop. "He's a straight arrow," the CEO boomed. "Never done a thing wrong."

"If that's so, we'll determine that," Chin replied firmly.

Wheeler looked from the two cousins to his employee, then back. "Bruce, you need anything, you let me know."

He nodded.

Wheeler gave Chin and Kono another look, then headed out of the office, the door snicking shut behind him. Lonoehu began to clean up his desk. "This is about Travis Holden?"

"Yes," Kono replied in a measured tone as she wandered around the office, taking her leisurely time straightening items throughout, allowing Lonoehu to get progressively more nervous. She straightened a notepad to the left of Lonoehu's phone, untangled the phone cord. She then picked up a bottle of ReNu contact lens cleaner from off the floor and set it next to the computer mouse, which was to the left of the keyboard. A tissue box which had fallen to the ground was placed back upon its shelf. She finally rounded the corner of the desk to come up along the man's right. "You seem to anticipate us."

Lonoehu's eyes flickered nervously, darting from the two cops back to his papers. "Do you have any leads?"

"A few. We'd like to know what he had contacted you about," Chin replied. "He had your name in a list of files, and on a notepad in his office."

The man blinked, then looked up with a frown. "Travis Holden had my name on a notepad in his office?"

"Is that a problem?" Chin stood in front of Lonoehu's desk, looking the man down.

"No. It's just that we didn't have much contact. I don't know why he'd have my name there."

With his right hand, Chin picked up Lonoehu's mug from his desk by the handle, looking at it before setting it back down. "How did you know Travis Holden?"

"I figure you already know."

"Humor us."

Lonoehu sighed, then sat down in his seat. "I helped him with bank records when he was working on his drug wars articles. Told him how to interpret the numbers, that kind of thing."

"Ever help him out with private accounts?" Chin asked.

"I can't do that. That's violating customers' privacy."

"Not if the cops have a warrant," Kono replied.

"I - " Lonoehu sighed. "I hinted at which possible accounts might be suspect. Cops would come in later with warrants."

"You were a source."

"Yes." Lonoehu then glared. "But that's all." He rubbed his forehead in agitation. "And if he's dead, I'll thank you for not leading his killers to me, too."

"Where were you the night of the twentieth?" Kono asked shortly, crossing her arms.

"I was at my son's baseball game. He'll confirm it, as will those sitting around me." Lonoehu looked insulted by the implication.

"So you haven't seen Travis Holden lately?" Kono asked innocently.

Lonoehu nodded. "I haven't seen him in a month."

"Or communicated with him," Chin said in confirmation.

"Or communicated with him."

Chin and Kono exchanged looks of stoic disbelief before Kono finally intoned in a no-nonsense voice, "We'd like to see your shoe, please."

"My what?" Lonoehu gave them a look of astonishment.

"Just humor us," Chin replied with a trace, feral smile.

* * *

><p>Steve watched quietly from the doorway of the morgue as Max carefully uncovered the face of Travis Holden. The medical examiner had cleaned up the body and carefully inserted putty into the bullethole, covering it so it was unnoticeable. He had been able to reconstruct some of the face, too, but not all.<p>

Livy Holden stood, rigid, unable to move. She closed her eyes for several minutes, and Steve could see silent tears streaming down her face.

"I'll give you a minute," Steve said quietly, pushing over a chair over to the body tray.

He and Max left quietly. Through the closed glass door, Steve looked back to see Livy Holden sitting in the chair, weeping silently.

After some time, she came to the door. "Thank you, Commander," she said, her voice tightly controlled, before turning to Max. "Thank you, Dr. Bergman."

The ME nodded and slipped quietly past her into the morgue.

The drive back to headquarters was silent, as was the walk up. As they came up the stairs, Danny looked over at them, and Steve silently shook his head. Danny talked quietly to Billie, who was sitting in his office chair, and she nodded before turning back to what she was doing.

Steve gently sat the woman down in a seat in front of his desk and handed her a box of tissues. After a moment, she began to speak. "I spoke to him just that night, the night he - " she trailed off. She leaned to one side, her forehead resting against her hand, her elbow on the armrest. "I was just telling him that I might need to extend my stay."

"Your sister was having a baby."

She nodded. "Her first. Since our parents passed, we help each other out. She came to help me when Billie was born." She took a deep breath. "I'd anticipated taking Billie with me, but she wanted to say with her father, so we agreed on that. Travis took some days off."

"Can you think of anybody who would want your husband dead?"

She gave a small, sad laugh. "He upset a lot of people with his articles. Travis was the type who fought for the truth - and printed it."

"What brought you to Hawaii?"

She sighed, then paused. "We had - we'd angered some people in Los Angeles, exposing some things. But the last straw was me, actually. I had been doing an article on a corrupt police strike force in Los Angeles." She paused. "The depth of the corruption - " she shrugged.

"I think I read your report. I was passing through a few years back," Steve muttered. "Leader's a big, bulky guy. Looks like the Thing."

She looked surprised but nodded. "That's him."

Steve paused, crossing his arms. "Olivia M. Holden." He paused. "You use your husband's name now."

She nodded. "Most people were glad I'd outed the force, but even then - some of my sources dried up - sources on both sides. Travis had just finished a stint as a researcher with one of CNN's offices in Los Angeles. We decided to relocate. Billie was a few months old."

"I hope you didn't come here expecting a crimeless paradise," Danny replied.

She smiled. "Of course not. But it's been a good place to start over." She paused. "It had been - before this."

"There's a police report on your house about two months ago." Danny indicated the folder.

"Yes." Olivia nodded. "They decided that it was a robbery, since some jewelry was missing, and that the men who did it were most likely gone already."

"Or just lying low," Steve murmured. "What are you doing now?"

"Well, I've been doing an article on medical technology, and I've been researching the influence of the passed national healthcare plan on hospital budget cuts." She shrugged.

"Any case before?"

"No, not really. I did an article on Detective Kaleo, when he was exposed, but that was awhile ago now."

"More along the lines of your experience," Steve offered. "Police corruption."

"Hawaii's smaller. We do whatever work we have to," she replied. "This time, for me, it's medical technology."

"What about your husband?"

"Um, we got a few threats when he was doing stuff on the drug wars, but interestingly, fewer now that he's focused on the Mexican drug wars' influence here." She shrugged. "I guess it's a common enemy thing."

"Local drug lords would like their Mexican counterparts out, too," Danny agreed.

"That's all I know."

"Was he helping anybody out with anything?" Danny asked then. "HPD said he was looking into something for them."

"Miranda Akina, yes," Livy Holden nodded. "He mentioned that she might be up to something shady, but she checked out. Something about land deeds and so forth." She shrugged. "But again, he found nothing wrong with Akina."

* * *

><p>"So?" Kono asked, leaning over from the passenger's side seat in Chin's black SUV.<p>

"He's certainly a size thirteen," Chin commented as he pointed to the shoe size, printed in Lonoehu's shoe. He then flipped it over. "No supination, though." He ran his finger along the flat sole.

"But he said this was a new pair of shoes," Kono said. "There might not be any yet."

"These also aren't Gucci." Chin looked at the photo. "They're Burberry."

"But it does tell us that he likes expensive shoes," Kono replied insistently. "That fits what we're looking for."

"Yeah." Chin leaned back in his seat, a frown on his face. "Yeah, it does."

* * *

><p>The office was dark, with the two cousins already having left. Danny looked about his own office, having put away everything, and then came out, his things in his hand. He flicked off the light. He was mildly startled to find Steve in the darkened bullpen; as he watched, the head of the taskforce stood by the television screens, absently pausing the surveillance video at the part where the little girl ran out of the room, then rewinding it to the minutes before. "Hey," Danny cleared his throat. "I'm, uh, heading out."<p>

"Yeah." Steve got up, then held out a wrapped package. "This is for Grace."

"You guys already had dinner and coco puffs for her yesterday," Danny started, then raised an eyebrow as Steve looked a little green at the mention of coco puffs.

"It's nothing big. It's a chew toy for her pet. And Billie wanted to give her a picture of her rabbit."

"I hope that chew toy squeaks loudly when the rabbit chews it," Danny commented. "Very loudly."

"I thought you and Rachel were getting along better now," Steve replied, the obligatory amused grin on his face, though the smile didn't seem to reach his eyes.

"I don't mean for Rachel. I mean for Stan." At that, Steve laughed, and Danny chuckled. "You OK?"

"Fine."

"You don't look fine," Danny replied. Steve gave an irritated snort, then turned back to the video. "You're not going to see any more than we saw already, Steve. We had statements from every cop, and we and Lukela interviewed every cop there. We showed Billie the pictures of the arrested people they had in there, and she didn't recognize any of them."

"I just don't understand how Bruce Lonoehu could have done what he did," Steve muttered. "He had no opportunity to threaten her. Look at it - he's with somebody the entire time he's on camera."

"We have the other evidence, Steven," Danny said sharply. "And when the evidence points towards one guy, then we go after him!"

That got no reaction out of McGarrett, who had turned back to the screen. He seemed to be waiting for something, and Danny turned to the screen. Two minutes ticked by, and if on cue, the little girl came tearing across the screen, going as fast as she could, straight out of police headquarters.

The video continued to play, but he didn't seem to be looking at it any more. The two men stood in complete silence, staring blankly at the screen as the video continued to play on.

"How do you do it?"

Danny almost didn't hear the question, as soft as it was. He gave Steve a quick, sidelong glance. The man was still staring at the screen, as if it would give him some kind of answer.

"I'm not even her father." His voice was reserved, quiet, and somebody who knew Steve less would have missed the tiny waver in his voice.

Danny said nothing, waiting for his friend to say more.

"She was crying," Steve said quietly, in a faraway voice, watching the still image of the screen as if entranced. "When we found her, she was crying. Witnesses we talked to - they said she was just running - and she was crying so hard and running so hard that she started hyperventilating because she couldn't draw enough breath." He was still staring at the monitor, watching the day-to-day business at the HPD.

Danny was quiet. "You try your best," he said quietly, answering his friend's earlier question. "And you pray that somebody else will make up what you can't." He pressed his hand on Steve's shoulder. "Go home. Tomorrow's Sunday. Get some rest." With that, he turned to go.

At the door, he turned back, and saw his partner still standing in front of the television screens.

* * *

><p>Once they were on the highway, Kono looked at her cousin again. "Why didn't we bring Lonoehu in for questioning? He lied to us! We know that fax number is his private line - his secretary confirmed it. He's got a taste for expensive shoes, and he's a size thirteen."<p>

"We need more," Chin replied. As soon as they were in the car and out of the lot, he asked, "What did you notice about his office?"

"Neat enough. Clean. Family photos."

"All right, his desk."

"Neat, clean. Orderly. Family photos."

"The notepad you picked up," Chin replied. "It was to the left of the phone. The phone was on the right hand side of his desk." When she looked at him, her brow furrowed in confusion, the older cop continued. "His mug. I picked it up, by the handle, with my right hand. I was facing him. The handle was on his left. His keyboard - the mouse." When Kono shrugged, not comprehending, Chin prodded, "The phone. He picks up the phone with his right hand - "

" - and writes with his left," Kono said in dismay as she figured out. "And his mouse is to the left of his keyboard. He's left-handed."

"Our shooter's right-handed," Chin replied.

"Some people are ambidextrous."

"He picks up mugs and uses computer mice with his left hand, Kono. How ambidextrous can he be?" She was silent. After a moment, he looked over at her, noticing the stricken look on her face. "Kono?"

"I picked up his contact lens cleaner," she said softly and slowly, her mind reeling as her eyes flickered back and forth.

"And?"

"He uses ReNu," she said softly. When Chin shook his head, not completely understanding, Kono explained, "Charlie said the bottle of solution we found at Holden's, the one with Lonoehu's name on it, was for rigid gas permeable. But the one I picked up in Lonoehu's office - ReNu - is an over-the-counter contact lens cleaner for SOFT contacts."

Chin frowned as he parked the car. "We need some kind of smoking gun if we're going to catch Lonoehu," Chin muttered.

* * *

><p>Steve nursed his beer in his corner booth, sitting in the seat with his back against the wall. An older man approached him, and Steve stood up to greet him. "Thanks for meeting me so last minute."<p>

"Quite all right." The older man sat down. "You wanted to see me, off the books?"

"I'd like to keep this off the records, yes." Steve smiled. "Can I get you a drink?"

"An iced tea." At Steve's raised eyebrow, the older man chuckled. "Unfortunately, no more carbonated or alcoholic drinks for me." As the waitress departed, the older man looked at him expectantly. "Haven't exactly expected any calls from Cmdr. McGarrett."

"You don't think I'd call an HPD psychiatrist?" Steve replied with an amused smile.

"You're not exactly the type," the older man looked amused.

"Is that from your profile of me, Dr. Chang?" Steve smiled.

The other man chuckled. "Very much like your father. He would be proud of you." Steve paused a moment, then gave a half-smile. "So, what is it you'd like to ask me?"

"You most likely know we had Billie Holden with us." Steve paused. "We found out she's had quite a good memory." He laid the drawing of his ship down in front of the psychiatrist. "She and one of my partners looked at the ship for just a few minutes because she was curious, but she was able to produce this picture. Terribly drawn," he commented, and Chang chuckled, "but accurate as to the number of masts as well as the sails on the masts." He laid down his iPhone with a photo of the sailing ship in his office.

Dr. Chang picked up the phone, looking at the picture, and then at the drawing. "Impressive for a child."

"She drew this one from memory that night." Steve laid the second picture down in front of the doctor - it was nearly identical to the first drawing. After waiting a moment for the psychiatrist to examine the pictures, Steve laid down another drawing. "This is a picture she drew of us." He then called up an iPhone image of Grace's rabbit, holding it up from the psychiatrist to see, and then brought up an image of the rabbit Billie had drawn as a gift to Grace. "This is a picture of a pet rabbit she was playing with the other day. She drew the picture this morning, about twelve hours later."

The psychiatrist looked at the drawings and then at the photos. "She's no Michaelangelo, but she does notice detail."

"Photographic memory?"

"Not necessarily. Perhaps it's something as simple as attention to detail."

Steve nodded and put the drawings back into his folder. "She seems unable to remember certain details from the night of her father's death."

"It certainly could be. If the experience was traumatic for the child, her mind may have shut off certain memories."

"Like the face of the man she saw."

"Possibly." Chang carefully folded the paper napkin by his iced tea.

"She remembers his shoes in detail, and a ring."

"How'd she describe them?"

"Shiny for both. The shoes were black with laces." Steve paused. "Remembers a man. Remembers he was fat - or so she said."

The HPD psychiatrist paused, leaning back in his seat. He sipped his tea, then asked, "Did you try drawing with her?"

"We did, later. Still can't remember his face. Just the shoes and the ring."

"She may never remember," the psychiatrist replied. "Or she may eventually recall, given certain circumstances."

"Can we manufacture those circumstances?"

"Not unless you want to re-traumatize her," the psychiatrist replied. He sat back and studied Steve. "Children are very resilient. Her nightmares will pass with time and treatment. Billie, as far as we know, has come from a very loving, supportive family. Her mother is strong. Billie will recover."

Steve leaned back in his seat, his gaze dropping to the top of the folder. He opened it, just looking at the rather poorly done drawing of the rabbit, with the letters of her name scrawled on it.

"She's very young to lose her father, and so violently," Chang said quietly. "But nobody said life is fair."

Steve put the drawings away, back into the folder. He looked down at it, then at her. "Even after this is all over - will her nightmares eventually go away?"

"Hopefully, yes." The psychiatrist tapped the glass thoughtfully. "She won't be unscathed."

"She certainly will be scarred if we put her on the witness stand," Steve muttered.

"You need to seriously consider that," the psychiatrist agreed. "But then, she might be too young to be put on the witness stand at all."

"Because she's three?"

"Youngest witness on record is a six-year-old," the psychiatrist replied. "Although that's changing now, given the sexual abuse of very small children."

"But she's still most likely too young," Steve repeated Chang's earlier concern. "So she can't even testify, despite the fact that she knows all this stuff."

"She may not be allowed to testify," the psychiatrist said with an enigmatic smile, "but it doesn't prevent you from using her information to track down the man who did it."

Steve frowned, leaning backward in the chair to study the older man; the gears turned in his head. "And if everything she tells us actually turns out to be true," he said, thinking through the man's comment, "and we find evidence wherever she mentions it, it boosts her credibility," he murmured as he caught on to the psychiatrist's point.

The psychiatrist grinned.

_TBC_


	7. Chapter 7

**Ho'ike**  
>by Sammie<p>

All notes in first part.

Thanks to everybody for reading and for reviewing! I'm glad the Billie-Steve interaction is working for all you reading. :-)

* * *

><p>"I hate Mondays," Danny groused as he went up the steps to Holden's office, snapping on a pair of evidence gloves.<p>

"And what happens on the weeks where we get Mondays off, too? Like Labor Day?" Steve commented.

"It's even worse, because it just makes Tuesdays into Mondays." Danny looked around.

Danny opened the 5-0 office laptop on top of Holden's office desk and sat down in the chair. "All right. Security video for the Star-Advertiser, specifically for this office, for the last week. What are we looking for?"

"Something. Anything. Let's see who tried to come in here, go through Holden's files. Our evidence against Lonoehu's not completely solid; let's see if we can get something off this video."

"When do we want to start?"

Steve paused. "Night of the murder."

"What? We know Holden wasn't there. He was too busy getting killed at home."

"Just - just start on the night of the murder, then go backwards in time from there."

Danny shook his head, then carefully clicked through the videos.

"Right there, right there! Stop, stop, stop," Steve nearly shouted as he pointed at the screen.

"Take it easy," Danny exclaimed, holding up his hands. "I can do this."

"Clearly not!"

"Do you want to do this? Here. You do it." Danny got up from the chair and let Steve sit. Within a few minutes, Steve was navigating the video. "Look." Both men leaned forward, watching as a hooded figure came into the bullpen area, then headed for Holden's office. He stood there a minute, playing with the lock, and then he was in.

He moved around, opening the filing cabinets and flipping around and going through the desk. He crawled under the desk for a couple seconds, then looked around some more. Finally, giving up, he left.

"What were you looking for?" Danny murmured to the man onscreen.

* * *

><p>"Are we even sure the missing papers are here?" Kono asked doubtfully as she looked around Holden's house, pulling on latex gloves as she did so. "We've been here all morning."<p>

"It wasn't in his office or his bank safety deposit box," Chin replied. "And we can't know those papers are permanently missing until we've looked through everything."

"That's our only reason for looking here?" Kono asked.

Chin paused and set down the binder he was looking at. "He spent the last week here with his daughter," he began. "His intern said he was working from home."

Kono grinned, nodding slowly as she caught on. "So it's highly likely everything's still here."

"Somewhere, yes." Chin set the binder back on its shelf, then looked around the house. His eyes fell on the _Goodnight, Moon_ book, still on the couch from a few days prior, and frowned.

"Chin?" Kono asked.

Chin turned silently and headed straight for the kitchen. He stopped in front of the refrigerator, his cousin looking over his shoulder.

He reached up and plucked one of Billie's drawings off its magnets, then flipped it over. Chin then held it up to Kono, an amused look on his face.

"It's one of the faxes," Kono said wonderingly. "She drew on the back of them."

"She doesn't ask permission to use paper," he repeated her words back to her.

"The date's correct," Kono murmured, looking over the numbers the fax machine had printed at the top of the sheet. "That's the missing page from the second fax."

"The fax number matches the ones we found in Holden's office," Chin replied, then grinned at his cousin. "We just found that missing information."

* * *

><p>"The missing sheets from the bank faxes were hanging on his refrigerator," Chin announced as he and Kono strode into headquarters, holding up the sheets they'd located.<p>

"What?" Danny turned, leaning against the computer. "Nobody noticed?"

Kono held up one sheet, fax side out, then turned it around to reveal Billie's drawing. Danny chuckled in understanding.

"What do they say?" Steve asked.

"That's what we can't figure out." Kono handed him a set of sheets.

Steve pored over them, Danny looking on next to him. "What do these columns of numbers mean?"

"We have no idea. We can't make heads or tails of the numbers. We're going to try Mrs. Holden first, see if she recognizes any of these numbers." Chin nodded at them. "You get anything from Lonoehu's office?"

"Some guy broke in the night of the murder. Rifled through the papers."

"You get a name?" Chin asked.

"Donnie Morris. Down in - Kalihi," Steve read from the slip in his hand.

"Kalihi," Danny muttered. "Just want I want to do - spend my day down in that neighborhood. My Monday just got infinitely better," he said sarcastically.

"I'll go," Kono volunteered. "I'm feelin' twitchy."

"That's good news for me," Chin said dryly.

"Danny, get over to Livy Holden, see if she can figure out these faxes her husband was getting," Steve said as he pulled his weapon from his desk and stuck it into his side holster. "Chin, I need a legal way to search Lonoehu's house, office, everything. Check Dnnie Morris's background; see if there isn't any way we can tie him to Lonoehu - phone calls, emails, whatever."

He turned to Kono with a grin. "Ready to put that twitchiness to good use?"

* * *

><p>"You sure our guy in the hooded sweatshirt is around here?" Kono asked, hopping out of the cab of Steve's truck and looking around.<p>

"Last known address," Steve commented as he climbed out and locked his door. "Donnie Morris."

Kono looked around warily at the neighborhood. "693 is over there." She adjusted her flak vest and pulled her gun, following her boss across the street.

Steve banged on the door. Nobody answered. "Morris!" There was thump, and then running footsteps. Steve directed Kono around the back, then kicked down the door himself.

He ran through the house, catching only a brief glimpse of the fleeing man, coming out at the other end to find Kono running ahead of him. "Five-0!" Kono shouted, but to no avail.

Morris kept running, pulling down garbage cans behind him to try to block Kono. She jumped over them, still running.

Steve veered off, taking a right. Running past laundry and children playing, he finally stopped short at a fence, then climbed it quickly and dropped to the other side just to hear a single shot fired.

As he came around the side, he came upon Kono, cuffing a whining young man. "She shot me in the butt! What kind of person goes around shooting people in the butt?"

"You were running from the police," Steve replied unsympathetically, looking down at him as he holstered his gun.

Kono turned him around and sat him down on the ground, right on his rear. "Ow!" he howled. "My wound's getting dirty," he whined.

"You'll live," Steve commented, crossing his arms.

"If she shoots me in the rear, this hottie should be required to tend to me, too!" Morris huffed.

Steve glared. "Call her that again, and I'll call her cousin to come over here with his shotgun."

"OK, OK," Morris said, wide-eyed, starting to lift his hands in a sign of surrender before remembering he was cuffed. He looked at Kono's stony expression back to Steve's feral one, "C'mon, man. Look at her! She's a little hottie packing heat," he attempted to appeal to Steve's sympathy. "You can't tell me you haven't looked!" When that didn't get a response, he switched tacks, exclaimed, "This is inhumane! Police brutality!"

* * *

><p>"Detective Williams!" Livy Holden looked surprised to see him, but she smiled politely and let him in to her hotel suite.<p>

"How is the protective detail working out?" Danny asked gently.

"Um, all right," she replied, giving a tired smile. "It's a little rough, but I understand."

"'Lo, Uncle Danny!" Billie came running from the bedroom, and Danny smiled and crouched down to receive her hug. "Can Gracie pway wif' me?"

"Sorry, kiddo," Danny replied with an amused smile, looking at the little child tenderly. "Gracie's got school."

"Oh," she said, clearly disappointed. She thought about it, then asked hopefully, "Can Auntie Kono pway wif me?"

"Auntie Kono? Right now she's chasing bad guys." Danny thought about it, then added, "Most likely literally."

"Oh," she said, with that earlier tone of disappointment.

"Billie, honey, Mommie needs to talk to Uncle Danny. Can you wait for me in the bedroom? Why don't you draw a picture for him to take back?"

"'K." The little girl bounced off.

"Kono came yesterday to play with her when we got home from church services," Livy explained with a small smile. "Billie was pretty happy."

"She seems happy," Danny commented to the child's mother. "She still getting nightmares?"

"Yes." Livy Holden looked tired, but then smiled and said, "What can I do for you?"

"These, were, uh, some faxes your husband was getting." Danny showed them to her, and she scanned the sheets, which just had varying columns of numbers. "We do know some of the numbers are dates." Danny pointed at the first sheet, the first column. "Look. 11 for 2011. Month, day."

"And some are repeated," she replied, looking at the second column."8327. Here, here, and here. And 1936 here, here, here, here, and here." She frowned. "Identification numbers?"

"The third column, the numbers go up, but not by any pattern." Danny looked at her from the side. "Do you understand any of this?"

Livy Holden paused. "Travis was working on this?" she asked.

"Yes."

She paused, looking over the sheets again and again. "This is financial information."

"We believe so."

"But he already finished his financial research for his current series on the Mexican drug wars," Livy replied, looking at the detective. "And the date on this - this is recent."

"We talked about Miranda Akina the last time we met," Danny said. Livy nodded. "What exactly was he looking into?"

"To be honest, he wasn't sure. He simply said there had been problems with permits and deeds and different kinds of zoning issues. He didn't intend to propose that side investigation as an article series, though - he was just researching on the side."

Danny's eyes moved from side to side as he contemplated this; he then looked up with an expression which said he was forming an idea. "Thank you, Mrs. Holden."

* * *

><p>"My rear's killing me!" came the holler from inside the interrogation room. "When am I gonna get to see a doctor, huh?"<p>

Outside in the hallway, Kono checked her weapon, looking at it very hard, as if contemplating something, then reholstered it.

"I'll bleed all over your chair. It'll stain and stink - blood does that! You don't believe me, don't you!"

"I believe you," Steve retorted back into the door. "Now, shut up."

"Get anything out of your witness?" Chin asked as he and Danny approached, amused expressions on their faces.

"He lets out enough hot air to fuel a week's worth of balloon rides, but he hasn't said anything of use," Steve replied. "You?"

"Can't find anything," Chin replied. "No cyber-contact between Lonoehu and Morris, anyhow."

"Lonoehu clean electronic house?" Danny asked.

"You realize even cleaning house won't get the blood out of this chair!" came a shout from the inside.

Steve rolled his eyes.

"He's been like this the entire car ride back here," Kono explained to the two others. "And then we got stuck in traffic."

"Oooh." Danny winced in sympathy.

"We know he's got an alibi for the night of Holden's death," Steve began. "He was busy breaking into Holden's office."

"But is he guilty of trying to murder Billie Holden?" Chin replied.

"Y'all ARE going to be guilty of murder if I don't get some medical care! I know how I'm supposed to be treated, and it's not like this!"

"You did inform him of his right to remain silent, didn't you?" Chin asked dryly.

"Yes." Kono looked exasperated. "Repeatedly. It's the first time I've ever wished somebody would invoke his Fifth Amendment rights."

"If he blabs that much, he's got to say something," Chin replied. "Let's see if we can get him to slip."

"Please," Steve waved towards the door. "He's all yours."

Chin turned to Danny, who was nearest the door. "After you."

"Oh, joy," Danny muttered. He schooled his face into a non-descript expression, then opened the door and went inside.

"Hallelujah!" Morris exclaimed when the door opened, then stopped when two unfamiliar faces came in. "Where are the two cops who picked me up?" When Steve appeared, full aneurysm face on, he cheered. "Hey, it's Mc-Glare-tt!"

"That's actually pretty good," Danny chuckled in acknowledgment. Steve, well, glared.

"It is, isn't it?" Morris grinned, then looked around. "Where's the hottie who shot me?" When Chin narrowed his eyes and turned a full stare on him, he swallowed hard and looked at Steve. "Is that the cousin you were warning me about?"

"Champion high school quarterback, too, so cool your jets," Steve intoned.

"Hey, Motormouth," Danny said, lightly slapping/patting (depending on who was telling the story) Morris' face. "Right here," he said, pointing to himself.

"I think slapping's police brutality," Morris commented.

"Just be glad that Frick and Frack who caught you aren't doing this interrogation," Danny replied. He crossed his arms. "Why were you in Travis Holden's office?"

"That's going to cost you some food."

Danny tossed a Saran-wrapped spam musubi at him. Morris looked disappointed. "That's it?"

"Start talking," Chin shot back.

"Hey, hey, take it easy. I wasn't there to cause trouble."

"Says the guy who broke in to a newspaper office after hours," Danny pointed out. "We have you on tape rifling through his cabinets."

"I was looking for food. I was trying to stock up in case I was shot in the butt and taken to a blue hellhole of an interrogation room where cops feed me only spam musubi."

"OK, let me tell you how this plays out, OK?" Danny held up his hands. "We drag you in here because you ran from the cops. You stall us, so we start by charging you with running from police, destruction of public property - "

" - they said you did a lot of damage to the homes nearby as you ran," Chin agreed.

" - being a punk, then being a loudmouth, bleeding on the floor."

"That ain't gonna stick in court." He looked smug.

"Then we show them the video of you breaking into a newspaper office, and we add breaking and entering to that," Danny continued.

"Then we tell the judge that you were breaking into the newspaper office of a noted local reporter and going through his files, and we add felony theft." Chin tilted his head to one side.

Danny added, "Not misdemeanor, of course. Felony. Because the guy whose office you broke into was investigating everything from drug wars to corrupt officials. The value of the thing stolen lifts it from misdemeanor to felony."

Morris' eyes widened slightly.

"Tack on obstruction of justice for trying to hide information from us and then attempted murder of minor," Chin finished. "Sound good?"

Morris looked horrified. "But - "

"Sounds good," Danny interrupted, answering Chin for Morris. "I'm sure the DA can drum up a few more charges."

"Or the HPD," Chin suggested brightly. "HPD won't like to hear that their friend's office was broken into or that their friend's kid was threatened."

"Whoa, whoa! I didn't threaten any kid!"

"Why were you there in Travis Holden's office?" Danny repeated his question.

"I got a call to go in," Morris replied.

"What did this person sound like?"

"Man," Morris said. "He had a deep voice."

"Like mine," Steve said from the doorway.

"Um, no, not really," Morris replied after thinking. "A big, deep, booming voice."

"Like mine," Steve repeated even as Danny smirked.

"No, not at all. I mean, a big, deeep, booooming voice," Morris said, imitating the voice.

"OK, I got it," Steve groused even as Danny and Chin grinned in amusement. "Deep voice. What did he tell you?"

"He said he had a little job that he'd give me three thousand dollars for. He'd leave me a swipe key card to get in at some location."

"What were you supposed to look for?"

"Anything with a 'Hawaiian National Bank' logo on it."

"How hard did you look?" Steve commented.

"I looked really hard," Morris protested.

"Clearly not, because one of us found a fax with a huge logo on it two days later," Danny retorted.

"OK, perhaps not that hard," Morris sighed. "I was hungry."

"Do you always think about food?" Steve groused.

"When cops are starvin' me to death, yes!"

* * *

><p>"Lonoehu's got a deep voice," Chin informed Steve as the four made their way to their office. "A baritone, in the least. Even a bass."<p>

"We'll get a voice recording of Bruce Lonoehu," Steve instructed as the four entered their office. "Maybe Lonoehu was there, but one of his cronies pulled the trigger - a right-handed one. Play the guy's voice for Morris, confirm it was him. Take it to Billie, too, see if she recognizes it."

"Are you sure that's wise? Can we just ask Morris first?" Kono protested.

"We need to know if that's the man who was at her house that night," Steve insisted.

"She's three. She's lost her father, she's been threatened by a disembodied voice which threatens to kill her mother," Danny disagreed. "Now you want to play the voice of her father's killer for her to listen to? How is that not going to traumatize her?"

"Then do it in a way that won't," Steve replied. "It's better for her to be scared now than to grow up without her parents. Get a recording to her, see if she recognizes the voice."

"Fine. Fine. OK. How do we put Lonoehu at the scene of the crime?" Danny replied. "It's all still circumstantial."

"He wears expensive, size thirteen shoes and he's heavy set, like Fong told us," Steve started. "He's got a wedding ring on his left hand. When we get Morris and Billie to confirm his voice, we'll have him."

"It's still circumstantial," Danny insisted. "Billie's three years old. Even if she could remember his face, her testimony might not be admissible."

"You saw her ability to recall," Steve retorted, cutting in.

"And you're still ignoring the evidence which seems to indicate Lonoehu's not involved," Danny continued, as if Steve had not spoken at all. "That contact lens cleaner in evidence, Lonoehu's alibi."

"Fine, fine. So what do you suggest we do?" Steve asked, crossing his arms.

"We leave Lonoehu's evidence to the side for a minute. We need to go back to what we know. We need a size thirteen dress shoe, worn by a tubby guy with a ring named Bruce. We get his exact shoe, the one he wore at the murder," Danny said, clapping the back of his right hand against the palm of his left to emphasize his point. "The shoe's most likely got blood on it. That will clinch our killer - and if it's Lonoehu, great. If it's not Lonoehu, we press him with our new evidence until he cracks."

"But our killer most likely dumped his shoes the day after the murder. We can't even prove Lonoehu bought those shoes - if he is the killer," Kono said in frustration.

"About that." The three others looked at Chin, who had a trace, enigmatic smile on his face. "I have an idea."

* * *

><p>The door to the small, upscale shop dinged to announce customers, and the clerk looked up. A young, tall couple came in, everything they wore dripping with money. He had on a pale blue, button-down linen shirt with double-button barrel cuffs. The relaxed top covered loose, white, straight-leg linen pants, which ended in cream colored boat shoes. He was clean-shaven, and his dark hair was partly neatly - as much as such short hair could be parted. As he entered, he pulled off his sunglasses and hung them on his shirt.<p>

She wore a pair of light leather sandals, comfortable for walking, and a light ruffle silk front dress in cobalt blue with white swirls. It hung loosely on her, as it should, but accented her height and athletic build. Her straight, black hair was swept up loosely, clipped in the back with a large banana clip. A small, expensive purse hung on one shoulder, and her husband had her free hand clasped securely in his own. The clerk could see the expensive engagement and wedding rings she wore. As they came in, she set her large sunglasses on the top of her head, revealing a pair of dark, lively eyes.

Her husband whispered something in her ear, and she smiled, her full lips pulling back to reveal a nice line of teeth and deep dimples appearing in her cheeks.

They both looked around appraisingly as he approached. "Hello," the clerk greeted as genially as possible. "Welcome to Noble House. How may I help you?"

"My wife," the man replied with an affectionate, indulgent tone as he glanced at the woman next to him, "thinks I need a new pair of shoes."

"No, your wife knows you need a new pair of shoes," she corrected in a cheeky tone. Her husband grinned. "We heard you were the premier high-end shop around here. You do custom tailoring?"

"Yes, we do," the clerk smiled. "Hong Kong tailors send custom tailors here every once in awhile. This is one of the few places where they don't take appointments at their hotel but do it in the shop, right here."

The husband smiled. "Sounds great. I may have to come here later." He paused. "What about shoes?"

The clerk smiled. "Ah. Well, you're welcome to look at the sample collection we have here. We then order in from the mainland. Is there something specific you're looking for?"

"Wears well. I prefer black."

"Excellent." The clerk directed them to the nearby displays.

They wandered some of the displays, and the clerk noted the conversation. "What about this one?"

"I thought you wanted a pair of boots or shoes with laces."

"I do."

"Then let's look at something else."

"This one?" He held up an ankleboot and flipped a finger over the laces.

"For a suit?" she asked doubtfully.

"Good point."

"We have a catalog too," the clerk interjected, "if you would like to order from there, and we'll measure you to get the exact shoe."

"Brilliant."

They took another ten minutes, lingering over the shoe catalog, the wife taking her time in looking at every page, murmuring over some and disapproving of others.

After a while, the husband, thinking, pointed lightly back at her. "You liked the shoes Bruce was wearing the other day when we met for dinner."

"Oh, those were great. The Gucci ones. The leather and the stitching were just brilliant. They were fairly new, I think he said."

"Bruce?" the clerk asked.

The woman laughed. "Bruce, you know. A little heavy set, but brilliant taste in clothing."

"Bruce...Bruce!" the clerk grinned. "Oh, I apologize. Of course I remember. He's the only Bruce we have as a customer who fits that description." He chuckled. "He's got a special affinity for Ermengildo Zegna and Gucci shoes."

"That's the one," the husband smiled. "You wouldn't happen to know the type of shoe he bought, right?"

"Oh," the clerk looked a little disappointed. "Um - "

"You keep records, right?" the wife suddenly said suddenly, as if the light bulb just went on in her head. "Do you think you could let us see his record, so we get that exact shoe?" She looked at her husband with an affectionately chastising look. "My husband doesn't believe that a Gucci shoe can look that good on a man."

The clerk chuckled. "And what do you prefer, sir?"

"Burberry," he replied.

"Oh." The man nodded. "Burberry - and Ozwald Boateng - great designs. Unfortunately, we don't do British designers here. They've got a man down the street, though," he offered helpfully.

"Well, thank you," she replied. "Do you mind if we get the specs on the Gucci first?"

"Of course! I've got his card and order right here." The clerk turned to his computer. "He's a friend of yours?"

"Oh, good friends." The husband gave a knowing grin, with a small wink.

* * *

><p>"I didn't expect to see you back so soon," Livy Holden commented as she opened the hotel room door again to see Danny standing there.<p>

"One thing we wanted to clear up," the blond replied as he came into the room.

"H'llo, Uncle Danny." Billie waved from the couch, where she had a large book in her lap and was play-act-reading to her panda and to her lion.

"Look what I got," the detective began, then pulled out a small box of coco puffs.

"Coco puffs!" The little girl smiled happily, climbing off the couch and coming. Her mother cleared her throat, and Danny noticed the woman send a gently meaningful look sent to Billie. The little girl instantly said, "Fank you, Uncle Danny."

"You like 'em, huh?" The detective smiled. The little girl beamed and nodded. "Me, too," he whispered to the child. "They're my favorite."

"Me, too!" she agreed brightly.

"I need you to help me with something, OK, Billie?"

"OK," she agreed readily.

"I know it's going to be a little scary, so I'm going to ask your mama to be with you." He paused, looking at the little girl's face. "I'm going to play a voice for you, and I want you to tell me if it sounds like the bad man who hurt your daddy, or the mean man who scared you while you were eating Cheerios."

He pulled out a small snack box of Cheerios, opened the bag, and poured out some on a napkin. "You want to sit here at the table?"

Billie obediently climbed into a chair.

"You were eating Cheerios, right?" he asked, sliding the napkin over to the child. She nodded. "All right. Now eat your Cheerios, and I'm going to play a voice. Don't turn around, just tell me if it sounds like the man you heard."

"'K."

Danny played a tape of Bruce Lonehu's voice, a full thirty seconds, before he paused it. "Billie? Is he the one?"

Billie shook her head. "Nope."

Danny frowned. "Billie, listen carefully. He won't say the same things on the tape as he said to you. But does the voice sound like the man who said mean things?" He hit play again, and the tape continued to roll.

"Nope."

"This doesn't this sound like the man who was with your dad, or kepolo?" He brought up another recording. "Listen carefully."

Billie waited this time, then shook her head. "Nope."

Danny's brow furrowed as he sat back and turned off the recording.

* * *

><p>"Bruce has got great taste," the clerk said as he continued working on the computer. "Conservative, as befitting his career, but great taste in material. He buys the Italian silk and gets it tailored. The shoes he got here, too."<p>

"Clothes make the man," the man replied with a smile.

"Indeed," the clerk smiled. "Here we go." He turned the computer monitor around, then pointed at the customer record. The couple leaned in together towards the screen. "He bought a Gucci lace-up shoe in black suede. Dark palladium hardware and a goodyear welt construction leather sole."

"We understand that the verification of authenticity comes printed on the shoe," the wife made her question in the form of a statement.

"Serial number's printed on the leather lining," the clerk confirmed. "We also keep a record of that serial number on our customer records."

The husband raised his eyebrows ever so slightly, looking rather happy at the news. "Do you mind if we take a look? Make sure we get down the specifics?"

"Of course. I can also get you a photo and description from Gucci themselves. That's in the back." The clerk turned the monitor around to the couple, then gave them a bright smile. "I'll be right back."

As he left, the husband quickly pulled out his iPhone and snapped a few pictures of the computer screen. He turned to his wife, his jaw working tensely, and turned the screen so she could see it, too. She looked at the screen, then at him, her smile disappearing; she looked back at the screen, then read off the name in a disappointed whisper: "Bruce Hoffman? The housing commissioner?"

_TBC_


	8. Chapter 8

**Ho'ike**  
>by Sammie<p>

All notes in first part.

Thank you to everybody who has read and who has taken the time to review! I apologize for not having the chance to respond individually.

THE SHOE STORE SCENE: ripped shamelessly from "Law and Order: Criminal Intent". :-D

BRUCE: Yes, Danny's going to be upset. And no, this story was not released to coincide with the rerun of "E Malama". After they reran it in July, I really had no idea they'd planned to run it again.

BILLIE: I'm glad people still like her. I didn't want her to be irritating - intelligent, but not irritating or un-childlike emotionally. She's not especially creative (no unicorns or monsters in her drawings; she simply draws what she sees), but her attention to detail comes from her two reporter parents. Benedict Cumberbatch once said in an interview that, after playing Sherlock Holmes, he finds himself more attentive to small details; I would imagine Travis and Olivia Holden, when they point things out to her, note details, which becomes something she just naturally does.

Just two chapters after this one.

* * *

><p>"I got nothing," Danny exclaimed in frustration to Chin as he came in. "I played two different recordings. Billie was firm in that this wasn't the guy she heard."<p>

"No reaction?" Chin asked, frowning in puzzlement.

"No reaction whatsoever." Just then the door opened again, and Danny looked up. "Well, well, if it isn't our posh Mr. and Mrs. Smith," Danny intoned as Steve and Kono returned. "You look like a Kennedy," he snarked at Steve, indicating the light linen-colored clothes. "Just without the diplomacy."

Steve gave him a look about the diplomacy crack, then switched topics. "This is actually pretty comfortable," he commented, glancing down at his linen clothes.

"I've half a mind to stay in this outfit all day," Kono commented on her own clothes brushing off her light silk sundress. She held up her left hand, "Good taste in rings, boss. How come you aren't married?"

"It ain't the ring, it's the guy offering it," Danny snarked.

McGarrett made his aneurysm face as Kono high-fived Danny on the way to her office. "Aren't you supposed to be somewhere?" Steve retorted at his partner.

"I'm done," Danny replied, then returned back to the clothing topic. "Kono's got pretty good taste." He raised his voice so she could hear him in her office. "Perhaps you can get Commander Cargo Pants to start dressing like a normal human being."

"Yeah - how often does he even bother wearing a shirt?" Chin could be heard mumbling under his breath into the screen of the tabletop computer.

Danny chuckled and held up a hand, which Chin high-fived without even looking up.

"Wouldn't picking his clothes be Catherine's job?" came Kono's question.

"Thanks," Steve replied sarcastically.

"You let Kono meet Catherine? I haven't met Catherine," Danny groused. "Kono met Catherine before I did?"

"Focus. Case." Steve pointed at the tabletop computer.

"You're really not that scary without the cargo pants," Danny snarked. He did pull his phone out, however, and set it down. "I played two different recordings of Bruce Lonoehu's for Billie. She didn't recognize either. What about you?"

"We went to Noble House," Steve replied. "Talked to the clerk."

"He confirm it was Bruce?" Chin asked, looking up.

"Oh, yeah." Kono brought up the images from Steve's iPhone onto the screens hanging from the ceiling. "Bruce Hoffman, housing commissioner. Said the man comes in, likes Italian shoes - Gucci and Ermenegildo Zegna - and Italian silk. Gets his clothes tailored there."

"What about Lonoehu?" Chin frowned.

"Saw him in the store once, four years ago." Kono waved at Chin. "We do know Lonoehu wears Burberry - that's a British designer."

Chin gave a frustrated sigh, then ran his hand through his hair. "So why all the stuff from Lonoehu in Holden's possession?"

"Beats me," Kono replied. "A setup, perhaps? Lonoehu's lower down on the scam, so Hoffman's setting him up to take the fall?"

Behind them, Danny stared at the monitor, then turned heel and left.

* * *

><p>"I know, I know, I'm back yet again." Danny gave a sheepish, apologetic smile when the hotel room door opened. "Sorry to disturb you."<p>

"That's quite all right," Livy Holden replied in a genuinely welcoming but puzzled tone, opening it wider to let him in. "We're just finishing a meal. Something new?"

"Yeah. I've got another voice I'd like to run by Billie, if that's all right."

"Yeah, sure."

"Hey, kiddo," Danny greeted from the doorway, and the small child looked up with a big smile. "Whatcha working on, hm?" He looked down at the half-finished drawing, sitting to the side of her plate. "Did you go to the beach?" he asked, looking at the (badly drawn) seascape.

"Uh-huh. Off'ser Aukai and Off'ser Ualani go-ed wif us to see do'phins. And fishes."

"HPD Protective detail," Livy Holden murmured in explanation. "We were going a bit nuts in the hotel room so they took us out."

"And did you see a dolphin?"

She nodded, her eyes shining as she chewed on another bite of food.

"And did you see fish?"

She beamed. "I like playing wif' fish." A thought seemed to occur to her, and she frowned at her plate. "Don't wanna eat fish. 's bad."

The bewildered cop looked over at Livy Holden, who shrugged, just as confused as he was. "She's always eaten fish sticks before," she murmured. "Sudden change of heart."

Danny shook his head of the odd thought, then refocused on his job. "Billie, I'm going to need you to help me. We're going to play the game we played earlier, OK? I want you to listen to something and tell me if that was the bad man who scared you."

"OK."

Danny pulled out another box of Cheerios, opening a napkin and putting some on it and sliding it in front of Billie. He moved the picture and the crayons out of sight and quietly handed the lion to the child while moving the panda out of sight.

"I - the Cheerios?" her mother asked.

"She was eating Cheerios at the time of the scare. Memories can be linked to smell, so I'm trying to rejog that memory." Danny carefully picked up the CD player he'd brought and set it on the bed behind the desk and hit play.

"Nope," Billie intoned as she heard the first voice.

"OK, good." It had been Stan's voice. He paused it. "Now listen to the second one." He pressed play again, and Hoffman's voice started going.

He looked at the child, but he could only see the back of her head. She sat very still. "Billie?"

She sniffled.

He hit pause and quickly stepped over to the child, pulling out her chair from the table and turning it to face him. She was shaking now, clutching her lion toy. He crouched down in front of her and gently brushed the stray hairs from her face. "That was kepolo, wasn't it?" She nodded shakily, tears running down her face. "You know we won't let him hurt you or your mommie. Uncle Steve promised you, right?"

Billie nodded again. She hugged her lion.

He smiled gently. "Give Uncle Danno a hug."

She reached over obediently and wrapped her small arms around his neck as he hugged her, rubbing her back comfortingly. "We'll get him."

* * *

><p>Chin looked at the man sitting in the chair, lit in the blue lighting of the interrogation room. The veteran cop held open a file, then silently took one of the faxed sheets and brought it up to Lonoehu's face, holding it there for several seconds. He followed, methodically, with the five other faxed sheets of numbers. He then held up the prescription bottle and then a photo of the shoe print in the soil. He then put the pictures into the folder and closed it.<p>

"You lied to us," Kono said bluntly. "You told us you had no contact with Travis Holden."

"That's obstruction of justice, Mr. Lonoehu." Chin crossed his arms, tapping the folder against his side. "We get more, we tie you even more intimately to what happened to the murder of Travis Holden." He uncrossed his arms, leaning in towards the man. "Think of your wife and your children, of the bank. A scandal will bring them all down."

The man sighed, then looked down at his hands.

Kono held out her hand for the file, which her cousin handed to her. She pulled out one of the crime scene photos of Holden, blood on the floor, his sightless eyes staring up at the ceiling, a hole in his forehead. She put it in front of Lonoehu. "Look." When he didn't, she insisted, "Look!"

"His three-year-old daughter spent over twelve hours alone in a saferoom because her father couldn't come to get her," Chin said as Kono pulled the photo away. "Then some lapuwale comes along and threatens to kill her mother if she tells what she knows. We found her running away, crying as she went."

"We know the housing commissioner's involved, and we know you're involved." Kono leaned down slowly, her dark eyes intense, filled with fury. "You know something, you better tell."

After looking at them, Lonoehu looked down at his hands, shamefaced. "Travis was investigating the housing commissioner, Bruce Hoffman," he said quietly, "and my boss."

"Frank Wheeler?" Chin asked, his voice rising a notch as he took in this new information. He exchanged looks with his cousin.

Lonoehu nodded. "Wheeler was helping Hoffman."

"And you?" Kono asked. "What were you doing in this little party?"

Lonoehu pinched the bridge of his nose, then studied his hands for a moment before looking up. "I was helping Travis."

* * *

><p>Steve opened the front door to his house and came in, tossing his bag onto his couch. His gun was out instantly as he noticed a man sitting there. He flicked on the light, then threw up his hands in exasperation. "Danny, what the h - "<p>

"Want dinner?" Danny held up a bag. "When I called, Chin said you were on your way home to change."

"How'd you get in here without setting off the alarm?" This alarm system sucked.

"Yeah, about that," Danny commented. "Your birthdate? Seriously? That's your password for your security system?"

Steve rolled his eyes and shut and locked the front door. "So where'd you go when you ran out on us?" he asked as they made their way to the small table in his kitchen.

"To talk to Billie."

Steve started to ask a question, then saw Danny's quiet, wistful face, and said nothing. During dinner, they talked about everything and nothing, avoiding the case at hand.

It wasn't until they were done that Danny finally spoke, leaning back in his chair. "Grace's eyes were blue when she was a baby." He shook his head with a small smile. "She looked a little like Billie when she looked up at you." He thought about it, then waved as he finished with the explanation, "Her eyes changed color later."

"Had you wrapped around her little finger, didn't she." Steve looked amused.

"Oh, yeah." Danny chuckled. "And Matty, too. Man - he'd come up with excuses to spoil her. National Chocolate Milkshake Day, he gets her an ice cream maker. National Pancake Day, he gets her a waffle iron. Rachel kidded that he was giving her hints about her cooking."

Steve smiled, watching his friend as he reminisced. "Good times?"

"They were great." Danny gave a bitter chuckle. "Look at us now."

No wonder he kept wanting to go back to New Jersey. In the very least, the memories were better - Hawaii was just a reminder of the loss of his wife and the loss of his brother.

"I keep thinking about Holden, and how that could've been me." Danny breathed in and slowly let it out, even as he leaned back in his chair, looking up at the ceiling. "Billie's three, Steven. Holden's going to miss everything: kindergarten. Multiplication tables. Sports teams. Dances. Everything."

He snorted softly. "I don't know if I could do it," he said quietly. "Potentially miss Grace's life for the sake of doing something right."

"Isn't that what you're doing now, being a cop?" Steve pointed out mildly.

Danny smiled weakly. "I suppose." He stopped. "Still - I could've been Holden." There was a long silence. "Some would say Holden chose the job over his daughter." He said it without conviction.

"You really think that?" Steve asked quietly.

He snorted. "I find it hard to call a man a workaholic when he took off from work so he could be at home with his daughter when his wife went out of town. He left a lucrative job in Los Angeles to move to this pineapple-infested hellhole so his previous work wouldn't endanger his family." He snorted mirthlessly. "Ironic."

"I didn't say I believed he was a workaholic," Steve said mildly.

Danny shook his head. "He wanted to correct an injustice. He considered the truth more important than - than everything." He paused and said in a faraway tone, "I don't think I could do that." The Jerseyan seemed to become self-conscious after that moment of sharing, and he straightened and tossed down a disc. "Bruce Hoffman." He pushed it over to Steve. "Billie identified him as the man at her house and the man who threatend her."

Steve picked up the disc, his brow furrowing as he looked at Danny. "How'd you get a tape of Hoffman's voice?"

"Do you remember, uh, the witness in the Brenner case?"

"Yeah. Julie Masters."

"The car hijacking?"

"Yeah." He hadn't wanted to talk about it then, so Steve hadn't pushed.

"Stan - the trouble Stan was in? He taped a conversation he had had with the housing comissioner, who was basically forcing him to pay bribes for building permits."

"That's why Hoffman had Rachel and Grace carjacked," Steve murmured in realization. "Trying to send a message to Stan."

"Stan, like the idiot he is," Danny groused, "just didn't get it. Didn't think it would escalate."

"Why hasn't Hoffman come after Stan since?" Steve asked suspiciously. "Danny!"

"You don't need to know. Just - here are the tapes." Danny pushed a series of tapes over towards Steve. He sat forward, leaning on his elbows on the table, steepling his fingers and resting his forehead against them. He closed his eyes briefly, then looked at Steve. "Hoffman will have no problem killing Billie Holden, if he thinks she can finger him for the crime."

Steve leaned forward, his mind churning. "If Holden was investigating - " he stopped. "Lukela - that early morning meeting. You said they'd asked Holden if he knew anything about a housing development that was supposed to go up a while back."

"Yeah."

"That developer must have been having problems with Hoffman. Stan's another one." Steve looked at Danny. "There has to be more people out there having problems with Hoffman. Holden must have been looking at all of them - their money transactions."

"He's a reporter. He can't get private information like that," Danny pointed out.

Steve shook his head. "When I left, Chin and Kono were working Lonoehu. He's talking. They're going to take him to gather evidence and meet us back at headquarters."

"Wait." Danny shook his head to clear it, then asked, "Lonoehu was HELPING Holden?"

"As the CFO of Hawaiian National Bank, he can access accounts - including the one Hoffman had at that bank - and interpret other financial data. They checked up on some of what he said, and they think he's being truthful about having been Holden's informant."

"The faxed sheets," Danny said in confirmation. Steve nodded. Danny pressed his lips into a thin line. "Lonoehu'll be in a big trouble if this gets out."

"No kidding." Steve took a deep breath, then rubbed his arm as he looked at the tapes. "Bruce Hoffman, huh."

"Yeah." Danny breathed in, then out. He sat forward, then clapped his hands on his knees. "I better be going." As he went to toss his things in the garbage, he stopped, looking at a cheerfully colored picture on the fridge. He blinked, then turned slowly to Steve, who was oblivious, working on getting his table cleaned up. "Refrigerator art?" Danny asked, holding it up.

"She insisted," Steve muttered.

"Well, that's her, and her lion, and her panda, and I'm assuming that's Kono, and that's you. Who's the brunette woman?" Danny asked, then paused as realization set in. "It's Catherine? Wait, how did Billie meet Catherine? Am I the only one who hasn't met your Ramboette?"

Steve looked exasperated, then explained sheepishly, "I forgot Catherine was coming that night."

"What night?"

"The night you called me!" Steve exclaimed. "You know, 'how do we know that Billie's lying? Perhaps there's really a guy trying to kill her'?" he imitated Danny.

Danny blinked, then looked at him incredulously. "Your solution was to bring a female coworker and a traumatized three-year-old to your house the same day your gal pal was showing up?" he asked with a furrowed brow.

Steve rolled his eyes, then shifted on his feet before repeating sheepishly, "I forgot she was coming."

"You forgot she was coming," Danny replied incredulously, his eyebrows raised in disbelief. "How do women even put up with you?" he muttered.

"Women like me just fine," Steve retorted.

"I just don't get how women like you. I just don't," Danny mumbled as he gathered up his things.

"Nobody needs YOU to get it," Steve groused.

"Completely inexplicable, the things that go on in women's minds," Danny continued, right over Steve's comment as he went out to his car. "Completely unfathomable. Baffling."

"Don't worry, there's no way you could be Holden," Steve hollered after him. "He was a lot taller and better-looking."

"Do you want a fist to the face?"

* * *

><p>The office was fairly dark. The only office with lights on was his own, and the windows only let in the dark sky.<p>

"Lonoehu here?" Steve asked as he blew into the darkened office.

"Right over there." Chin also held up his iPhone. "I asked him for a recording of Wheeler's voice." He played a short clip, which had Wheeler greeting a charity audience and thanking them for coming.

"He's got a deep voice," Steve agreed.

"I noticed it when we first went to speak to Lonoehu. Wheeler was there. He had kind of a - rumbling type voice."

"Different from Lonoehu's but still deep," Steve confirmed.

Chin nodded as he followed Steve to his office, where Kono was already perched on the side of Steve's desk, Lonoehu sitting in a chair in front of it.

"Mr. Lonoehu, Steve McGarrett," Chin introduced. "Boss, Bruce Lonoehu, CFO of Hawaiian National Bank."

"Sir." Lonoehu greeted him, then remained standing until the others sat.

Steve eyed the pile of disks. "Evidence Mr. Lonoehu was gathering for Holden," Kono said in response to his unspoken question.

Steve leaned back in his desk chair, watching the man in front of him intently. "First question, Mr. Lonoehu. Why didn't you give us this when we first questioned you?" he asked without preamble.

He closed his eyes briefly and bowed his head a little. "I was hoping," he began, then stopped. He then started again. "I was hoping that Travis had not been the target for what we were working on."

"Hope," Steve repeated incredulously. "And how's that working out for you?"

The banker heaved a sigh, then looked at Steve with an expression of stoicism which still hinted at his feelings of guilt. "I'm here now."

"Tell us how you met Travis Holden."

"At a charity event, over two years ago, for Shriners Hospital for Children."

"Punahou Street," Steve replied. "A hospital. Was this one of Livy Holden's charities?"

Lonoehu nodded. "Yes. Travis was there with her. We were put at the same table and talked. We later golfed together in a charity event." He paused, thinking back. "He's a terrible golfer."

Chin chuckled softly.

"When did you first start helping him?"

"His article on the local drug wars. He'd - I don't know how he got it, but he managed to find all kinds of financial data on how the money was being laundered. He needed explanations. That's where I came in."

"Did you supply him information?"

"Nothing that big. Most of them wouldn't be moving huge amounts of money in Hawaiian National Bank anyhow. Too conspicuous. We screen our major clients much more closely." He shrugged. "I kept an eye on their local accounts, but that was it."

"And this recent series on the Mexican drug wars? What was your role?"

"Purely explanatory. The Mexican drug dealers obviously didn't have HNB accounts."

"What about this housing thing?"

He took a deep breath. "Travis approached me about five months ago. Said he'd heard some rumors about bribery in terms of land zoning or deeds or something to that effect."

"Rumors?" Steve asked. Danny had said that some of the cops approached Holden for help with a proposed housing development.

"I assumed he got them from his HPD contacts," Lonoehu replied. "I don't know."

"What kind of things was he mentioning?"

"Assignment of government contracts. The long time it took for permits for some contractors, not for others. He seemed to have done a great deal of work already on it. There was once or twice I - " he shook his head. "The way the contracts had been assigned, and to whom, made no logical sense. Why some applications for land permits took longer than others - again, no rhyme or reason to the delays."

"Unless the commissioner had been taking a bribe."

"Yes. The one contractor was simply better, more efficient in that type of building. I just don't get why he didn't get the contract. Some applications were much clearer, better written, had better proposals - took forever to get passed."

"What happened with Holden?" Chin cut in.

"Travis gave me a few names. We looked at their accounts. Then he mentioned the housing comissioner, who also has an account at HNB. One thing led to another, and I found out my boss had been helping Hoffman."

"Helping how?"

"There were a lot of dummy accounts," Lonoehu said quietly. "They were opened at late hours at night. We have somebody here in the main offices around the clock, but that's only one person or two people, and different people on different days. We're not a big bank."

"The people working nights didn't open the accounts," Kono confirmed.

"Yeah, they didn't open them." Lonoehu sighed. "There was only one person who could have opened all those accounts on all those different nights." As the team exchanged looks with each other, the banker sighed. "That's when I began to suspect my boss."

"Frank Wheeler, CEO," Chin identified the man, giving to Steve a folder with that information.

"There was always money coming in, shifting around. And while the money going from account to account could have been transferred by the late shift, Frank was the only one who always was there in the late hours. He also had a regular deposit in his own bank account every month - besides his paycheck."

"What happened when you approached Holden?"

"He had suspected this already. He figured that in this day and age, for bribery on that level, Hoffman would have needed help to move money around. He had dug a little - apparently Wheeler and Hoffman were very close." Lonoehu got quiet. "In February, Travis and I decided to stop meeting in person."

"What happened in February?"

"I don't know. Holden - he picked me up one night. We ended up driving around Oahu for an hour. He seemed paranoid to me, but perhaps he wasn't, given...all this." Lonoehu waved.

"Did something happen?"

"He said a contractor - something about the contractor's wife and a child getting carjacked. I remember very specifically that he said the car and the purse were returned intact. I thought that was great. He said it was bad - if it had been a simple carjacking, they would have sold the car off in pieces and taken the woman's purse."

Steve frowned, his brow furrowing. Chin and Kono exchanged looks.

"They hadn't taken the stuff, he said, so the carjacking was clearly meant for another purpose. He said the woman's husband was a business contractor. Builder. He figured Hoffman was trying to send the guy some kind of message."

"Did he mention a name?" Kono pressed.

"No." Lonoehu shook his head. "But the whole thing rattled him. It really did. He just kept saying, 'She's only eight. She's only eight.'"

"About the child who was carjacked," Chin confirmed.

"I'm guessing."

"What happened after that?" Steve asked, leaning forward, folding his hands in front of him on the desk.

"He handed me a prepaid cell phone; he'd already programmed the phone number of his prepaid cell phone into it. He also had my number programmed into his phone. No communication over the Internet."

"How DID you communicate?" Steve held up some of the faxed sheets. "We found these hidden in generic faxes about the Hawaiian economy and other things about your bank."

Lonoehu smiled then. "Those were urgent - information he needed right away. I faxed them over myself, then called him the minute I was outside the office to make sure he'd gotten them." He shrugged. "Most people don't always pay attention to the 'page 1 of 4' marks at the top, as long as the entire document reads continuously, so I sent over documents and sandwiched the pages he needed in between the big documents. I sent over three like that."

"Any other communication methods?"

"My son goes to UH here in Manoa. His friend works in campus mail."

"You sent things to Holden by way of Holden's intern, Jeremy Kahaloa," Chin cut in.

"Yes. Not that either of them knew exactly what. I'd put encrypted discs in sleeves, and then put them in a larger envelope with Travis' name on it. That folder went into an even larger envelope with Kahaloa's name and box number. He'd open it, see the envelope with his boss's name, take it to him."

"They never opened the envelopes or questioned this?"

"Jeremy and my son are good boys. They obey their elders," Lonoehu replied.

"You used campus mail?" Kono asked incredulously.

"They were the only ones who wouldn't question weird packages," Lonoehu said quietly.

"How many of these businessmen - housing contractors, whatever - did Holden know?" Kono asked.

"A lot. I know some of the same people, and I'm sure I know several of the people he most likely spoke to, but he never mentioned names to me unless he wanted some specific."

"The question is how many are going to be willing to vouch for all this in court," Steve muttered, glancing at Chin.

"They won't testify if they don't think we can bring Hoffman down," Chin replied. "They'll try to stay on his good side if they think there's any chance Hoffman'll come out on top."

There was a long silence, and then Lonoehu asked quietly, "How is Billie?"

"Night terrors," Kono replied. "Hoffman threatened to kill her mother if she said anything she knew about her father's murder."

"She was there when her father died?" Lonoehu looked horrified.

"Her father hid her. The shooters never found her. But she heard everything and, while she didn't witness the murder directly, she saw the people coming in. The killer then found her at HPD the next day and tried to scare her into silence."

"But she talked to you," Lonoehu confirmed.

Steve nodded.

The man gave a soft chuckle and shook his head. "Travis is - was - always like that. His wife, too."

"Like what?"

"Like holding a live wire, when they got on the trail of something." Lonoehu smiled sadly. "Travis - he adored his daughter. I think that carjacking he told me about worried him - because of the child in the car. But he just - "

" - he wouldn't give it up," Steve finished.

"He wouldn't give up," Lonoehu repeated in agreement. He gave a small, bittersweet laugh. "That was most likely the only thing he held as more important than anything else - the truth." He shook his head. "I told him once that truth changes - for example, that we all knew, say, FDR was a great president and then we knew about his affairs, so we now we know he wasn't exactly moral in his private life. 'Truth changes,' I said."

"He didn't agree?" Kono said, a trace smile on her lips.

"'Bruce, the amount of truth you know has changed,' he said. 'The truth itself never did.' Just because we don't know something, he said, doesn't make it not true. If a child's being abused, he said, that abuse is a truth, whether or not somebody knows or even believes it." Lononehu shook his head.

"Starry-eyed optimist?" Chin suggested with a small smile.

"I thought that at first," the man acknowledged, remembering with a small nod and smile. "Came to realize he wasn't optimistic in the slightest," Lonoehu corrected. "He was quite a cynic, actually. 'We'll always have cops and comedians', he said once. 'There will also be bad people and dumb ones.'"

He shook his head. "He was a crusading type, but he was one of those - he never put a cause before the truth. He made a mistake once about a guy - in his drug wars series. He was sure the guy was dealing. Went after him like a hunting dog. When it was over, Travis found he'd been wrong, and had accidentally ruined some of the man's job opportunities. For the next six months he served as a job reference, even went to one of these guy's interviews, to tell the interviewer he'd made a mistake on the article, to clear the guy's name. Didn't even like the man."

Lonoehu shrugged. "That's why people liked Travis. Self-deprecating, never afraid to admit he was wrong. And when you needed him - for something legit - he was there."

Steve pursed his lips. "And how many of these people are willing to step up and testify to that in court?"

"Enough, I hope," Lonoehu replied. "Travis deserves that much." He reached into his pocket and handed Steve a business card. "You can count me in."

"About done, sir?" The elderly lady smiled up at her boss.

Stan Edwards grinned. "Closed another deal. Now I can go home to my family and enjoy my long weekend off."

"Well-deserved, sir." The secretary smiled, then leaned forward. "There's somebody waiting for you," she whispered, her eyes darting towards his office. "He insisted."

Stan looked at his watch. "It's almost 9 pm."

"I know. I apologize." The woman looked piqued. "He was very, very insistent. Says he knows you personally."

Stan looked towards his office, a shadow there. "OK, thanks. You go on ahead. Enjoy your evening." He trotted over, then opened the door to his office. "Hello, how can I help you?" he started, offering his best businessman smile.

The man turned around, his arms crossed, a trace smile on his face. "Hello, Stan," Danny Williams greeted him.

_TBC_


	9. Chapter 9

**Ho'ike**  
>by Sammie<p>

All notes in first part.

BRUCE: I, too, had always thought Danny would turn Hoffman in right away and waited for some kind of wrap-up on it - or even just any other mention of it. Danny would have to tie the break-in and the carjacking to Hoffman, who, I'd assume, would be very careful. Yet the show never seemed to go there - perhaps they just forgot. ;-)

STEVE'S CLOTHES: Of course Danny would mock him. :-D

TRAVIS HOLDEN: I wanted him to have a whole personality, a relatable person (especially for Danny) for whom, if I wished, I could write a separate story - before his death, of course. I envisage Holden as a driven, upright family man, a Prince Albert (played better by Jonathan Firth than Rupert Friend) or Helo Agathon (Fighting Agathons! How is it that Masi Oka already has a "Heroes" reunion with Greg Grunberg and we haven't seen any of Grace's costars? I personally vote for Edward James Olmos or Tahmoh Penikett.)

* * *

><p>"Morning, Chin," Danny greeted as he came down the hall towards the Five-0 headquarters, accompanied by several others. "Look who I found in the parking lot."<p>

"Mrs. Holden, Billie. Good morning." Chin nodded to the two HPD officers. "Conway. Palea."

"Hi, Uncle Chin." Billie ran to him and hugged his knees.

"Hey, keiki," Chin greeted, hauling her up into his arms. "How are you today?"

"Good," she announced. "We's gonna see Uncle Steve."

"Well, Uncle Steve's right inside."

As the Holdens headed for the bullpen, followed by their protective detail, Chin pulled Danny back. "You know your ex-wife is here?"

"Who? Rachel?"

"You have another ex-wife?" Chin raised an amused eyebrow.

Danny acknowledged that with a wave. "Cute."

"She's very upset."

Danny's eyes flickering to his office. "Thanks for the warning."

"Call if you need backup, brah." Chin gave him an amused smile.

"I just might," Danny commented as he headed down to his office. He opened the door to his office but said nothing. He deliberately shut the door, then methodically closed the blinds. "Rachel."

She was pacing, and she didn't stop until he'd crossed the room and stood behind his desk. "How could you involve him?"

"Rachel - "

"It wasn't enough that we get carjacked? Now you have to ask him to testify?" her voice rose.

"This is a criminal murder case, Rachel," Danny snapped. "Stan can testify to motive."

"That will get him hurt!"

"He needs to take that risk to end this all," Danny replied sharply.

"He's got a wife and a child, in case you forgot," she retorted.

"Oh, I forgot! Thanks for reminding me," Danny snapped sarcastically. "What would I do without you to remind me that my daughter's involved in this?"

Rachel glared at him, then suddenly seemed to deflate. She swallowed, her eyes closing briefly as she silently acknowledged that point. She took a deep breath. "How did Stan get involved in all of this?"

"What, he didn't tell you?" Danny frowned in disbelief.

Rachel gave him a sharp look at the implied criticism, then admitted, "No."

"Stan wasn't in the wrong in that business with the carjacking," Danny repeated what he'd said several weeks before. "More than that I can't say."

"So both of you are keeping secrets from me."

"This is Stan's to tell, Rachel," Danny countered. "Not mine."

She uncrossed her arms, then sighed and sat down in one of the chairs in front of Danny's desk. "Can't Edward just do a taped - testimony, or a - I don't know!" Rachel threw up a hand in frustration as she struggled to describe what she wanted.

"Yes, they'll want tapes, but they'll want witnesses also," Danny argued. "Stan has a solid case against Hoffman. Add to that carjacking - it shows the extent to which Hoffman'll go. We think it's the same thugs who carjacked you who are involved in our case now. If so, when we catch them, we'll have them confess to both cases."

Danny took a deep breath, his eyes closing a minute to calm himself. "Rachel, listen to me. In a case, the evidence is critical, but the prosecution and the defense will want to question the person who got evidence, who experienced this firsthand. I can't do that. Stan can. To have a full-blown case, the DA will want him to testify."

"Danny, I don't know. I - "

"Look!" Danny threw down a picture of the Holdens. "Rachel, look. That's Travis Holden. That's his wife Olivia. You see this little girl?" he asked shortly. "This is Billie Holden. She is three years old. Do you know where we found her, huh? Huh?

"My partners found her in a safe room in the house. A safe room - with walls strengthened with Plexiglass and Kevlar," he replied, emphasizing his point by pounding his one hand perpendicular to the palm of the other. "She was holding her stuffed panda." Danny slapped down a larger photo of the child. "12 hours in that room alone. The first thing they had to do when she got out was change her. She had to go to the bathroom, couldn't reach the adult size portable toliet in the safe room. Her clothes were soaked in urine. Her stuffed toy had to be cleaned." He watched as Rachel breathed in and swallowed, unable to tear her eyes away from the pictures.

"Her father was going to blow this guy's scheme out of the water. So the schmuck showed up at this man's house, knowing he'd be there with his little daughter. Travis Holden died from a direct shot to the head." Danny dropped a photo of the crime scene on the table, with the outline of the body. "He was facing the door; his daughter was in the safe room in the back of the house. We think he was there to stall them from finding her.

"She's three, Rachel." Danny clenched his hands into fists, shaking them up and down in an urgent plea. "Do you remember when Matty was gone - five, six months - and then he came to see us? Grace, three years old - screaming like she was being abducted when he picked her up."

He fell silent for a moment, then continued softly, "Billie's not like Grace is now; she's not of the age where she'll have clear memories. This child" he tapped the photo of Billie "will have fleeting images of her father. She'll only have her father's voice in videos and her father's face in pictures. Her own parent, Rachel - the one who died because he was trying to protect her" he gestured, making the one point "and the rest of this people living in this looney bin they call a state."

Rachel kept his head down, her eyes flickering over to the photo of Grace sitting on Danny's desk. "What about Grace? If Stan testifies - "

"You don't think I know that?" Danny retorted sharply.

"I didn't mean to imply that you didn't care for - "

"Rachel, listen to me." Danny licked his lips, then paused. "Grace is safest if Hoffman's off the streets. Do you want what happened to Travis Holden to happen to you, or to Stan? This guy has already willingly targeted a three-year-old. He let Grace get carjacked. Do you think he's not going to go after our daughter again?"

She swallowed, then closed her eyes. She was silent for a long time. "Stan's a businessman. He's not supposed to be involved in this."

"Rachel, I know how you feel, but we need his testimony."

She just gritted her teeth, then picked up her purse and turned to go. She opened the door to his office, just long enough to see Olivia Holden emerging from Steve's office with Billie in hand. Danny followed Rachel's gaze; the small child was wearing a pale purple sundress, her large panda tucked under her free arm. She looked up and about the office, quietly talking to herself as she looked around, as her mother spoke with Steve.

Danny paused behind Rachel, his gaze steady on her face. Chin was speaking to the Holdens now, and then as they turned, Olivia Holden looked up. Danny saw recognition and surprise flash across Olivia Holden's face. "Mrs. Edwards."

"You two know each other?" Chin frowned.

"We - we've met at a few different charity events," Rachel offered as an explanation, then came forward, gently clasping the other woman's hands in her own, giving her a genuinely sympathetic smile. "I'm very sorry about your husband."

The blonde was pale, her eyes with dark shadows her expression stoic. "Thank you." She smiled awkwardly, then curiously. "How come you're here?"

"Oh." Rachel and Danny both opened their mouths at the same time, then shut them, then Rachel started, "Detective Williams is - my - " as Danny said awkwardly, "We're - " they both trailed off.

"Oh." Holden blushed. "Right."

"This must be Billie," Rachel smiled, then gently crouched to the child's level. Her smile slowly disappeared into one of pained sympathy as she looked at the small face. "Hello."

Billie hid behind her mother, peeking out at the other lady curiously.

"Say hello to Mrs. Edwards," Livy Holden prodded.

"H'llo." The little girl hid behind her mother.

"She's a little shy," Holden apologized.

"That's all right." Rachel smiled gently. "I believe you know my daughter, Grace."

The little girl beamed, cheering up instantly. "I like Grace." She paused. "Can she play wif me?"

"Grace is at school right now." The little girl's face fell. "But I'm sure I'll run into you and your mummy again."

Rachel smiled in acknowledgment as Chin led the Holdens away to his office. She watched them go, and then said quietly to Danny, without turning back to look at him, "I won't stand in Stan's way." She paused. "And you can add me to the witness list, if you need me."

Danny looked at her steadily, his expression soft and gentle. "Thank you."

* * *

><p>"You're here!" Morris cheered as the door to his cell opened. "I've been rusting in this cell all night. When can we get breakfast?"<p>

"You got breakfast already - and medical care. That's already pretty good." Danny showed little sympathy, even as he typed away on his iPhone.

"That wasn't breakfast!" Morris protested. "How 'bout some breakfast tacos or loco moco, huh? I want to talk to Mc-Glare-tt. He'll get me something to eat."

"Hot lead, perhaps," Danny said, finishing up what he was doing and then putting his phone away. As he looked up, he groaned. "Aw, h-ll, what did you do with your shirt? Really, seriously, you need to cover up. Where's your shirt?"

"I was starving so badly I ate it. I need to keep my fiber levels up. Where do you think it is?" he asked sarcastically. "I had to use it to cushion my sore bum."

Kono gave a snort from her spot in the doorway.

"Oh, hey, babe."

"Show a little respect," Danny groused. He waved Kono over.

"I want you to listen to this, tell me if this is the guy who hired you." Kono played a sound of Bruce Lonoehu's voice.

"Nope."

"You sure?"

"Certainly not. My guy - well, he had a deep voice, too, but it was, you know, those old people 'ooh, my achin' back' type voices," Morris replied, imitating a wheezy, older-sounding voice.

Danny rolled his eyes.

"OK, this one." Kono played an audio clip of Hoffman's voice.

"'Oh, what?'" Morris pretended to imiate one of them, puting a hand up to his ear, as if listening for something. "'My dear Morris, did you say deep, booming voice?'" He waved at the recorder. "I told you I heard a...James Earl Jones type voice, not Mickey Mouse!"

"Just shut up and listen to this one," Danny groused. He played a voice recording of Wheeler's voice.

Morris' eyes widened ever so slightly, and when the two cops looked at him, he blinked. "I don't know," he said in a slightly high-pitched voice. "Perhaps it was, perhaps it wasn't. I can remember better if I've eaten. Preferably something from the Counter," he tried.

"It's him," Danny replied. "Wheeler hired him. C'mon." He hauled him to his feet.

"Wait, how do you know it's him? Even I'm not sure! I think if I had some food I could think more clearly. The Counter's got fresh, 100% natural angus beef, hormone and antibiotic free. Though, Shorty, you look like you could use a little hormone. Ow!" he yelped. "Watch it! I'm still sore back there!" he shouted as Danny tugged on his cuffs behind his back. "Can't you cuff me in the front?"

"No."

"If you cuff me in the back you'll have to feed me, but if I'm cuffed in the front I can manage myself."

"No."

"Can I at least have the hottie take me out?"

"No." Danny jerked him to his feet.

"Woooee, standing feels so much better than sitting. You guys really don't know how to treat guests around here. You let me sit and lie for that long on this hard furniture with just my shirt for padding? After Hottie here shot me in the butt? Seriously, where's that aloha spirit? I mean - eep!" he squeaked as he found himself staring down the barrel of the woman's weapon.

"Open your mouth one more time," she said sweetly, "and I'm going to reintroduce you to my little friend." She turned him around again, pushing him along.

"Most certainly hanging out too long with McGarrett," Danny sighed.

"OK, OK. Can we do a deal? Huh? I got some more information if you'll cut me a break." Morris looked at them pleadingly. When they just glared, he sighed. "Oh, OK. But I'll get some consideration, right?"

Kono put her Kel Tec into Morris' face.

"OK, OK." Morris sighed. "That old wheezer on the phone, told me to dump a pair of shoes and the grip of a gun."

"How'd you get 'em?"

"Same way I got the swipe key card for the newspaper place and the contact lens cleaner bottle. They were dropped off - ooohhh, crap." He looked at them nervously.

"You better explain that last statement," Danny replied in a low, dangerous tone. "Especially the part about the lens cleaner."

"For a burger?" Kono got a feral smile on her face and put her finger on the trigger. "OK, OK!" he sighed. "I got the key card to swipe in to Holden's office. In the box was a bottle of something with a note. I was just told to roll the bottle onto the floor in Holden's office."

"Plant it," Kono clarified. "Plant it as fake evidence."

"Whatever you call it."

"We didn't get fingerprints."

"I wore gloves."

"Why didn't you tell us this before?" Danny asked, crossing his arms and doing his best Steve McGarrett aneurysm face.

"All you asked about was the phone call! This was a written note!"

"Where's the note?"

"Tossed it. With the swipe card."

Danny closed his eyes in exasperation, taking a deep breath to keep his temper at bay. (Anger management class seemed to be working wonders.) "You said they came the same way the shoes did. What did you do with the shoes? Dump 'em like you were told?"

"'Course not. I opened that box, and they were the poshest shoes I'd ever seen. I cleaned 'em up and kept 'em. When else do I get free shoes dropped off in a box?"

* * *

><p>Chin came out of the house, carrying a United States Postal Service priority mail box. "Just like he said. Box. No return address, no prints that I can see."<p>

"Shoes and gun in there?" Steve asked.

"I'm a good person. I don't lie," Morris protested.

"No, you just withhold information from police, trespass on private property, try to steal information, and then attempt to plant evidence to convict an innocent man," Steve retorted, glaring at the cuffed criminal.

"Why do you have to be so negative?"

Chin held up what was a gun grip, without the barrel. "Sawn off. No serial number, no barrel to check the fired bullets against." He shook his head. "These criminals are getting smarter. They used to try to file the number off, and we could use an acid solution to lift it."

"Now they're just taking the whole thing off." Steve pointed to the grip. "Any bullets left?"

"Rest of the cartridge, but that's it. We don't have a barrel to shoot them out of, so we can't check the ballistics against the bullet pulled from Holden."

Steve sighed. "Shoes?"

"Yup. Unfortunately, Morris buffed and shined them up. I don't know if we'll have any fingerprints." Chin turned the pair of shoes over. "Look, though. Supination of the foot."

"Soles look like they would fit the cast Fong made of the shoeprint from the crime scene."

"Left shoe's missing its Gucci tag." Chin pointed at the missing logo.

"Serial number?"

Chin held up the shoe to show the inner lining. "Right here. Matches the serial number you and Kono got off of Bruce Hoffman's customer record at Noble House."

* * *

><p>"We met Bruce Hoffman at a charity dinner," Livy Holden said softly, folding her hands in front of her. "I think it was one of Travis's - the disability fund for the Honolulu Police Department."<p>

Danny nodded. "Some of the cops mentioned it."

Livy gave him a weak smile, then looked back out to the pool. Billie was in the shallow end of the pool, tearing about happily under the watchful eye of Kono, who was in the pool with her. "She loves the water. She and Travis - always in the ocean." She took a deep breath and then got back to the task at hand. "Hoffman - he was generous, as was Frank Wheeler. We never thought much about where the money came from, and neither did the people running the fund."

Danny squinted against the bright sun. "Did you notice anything odd concerning Hoffman? You or your husband?"

She thought for a moment, then shook her head. After another moment, she stopped. "Yes." She paused. "Hawaii Medical Center East wanted to expand, and for awhile couldn't get a contractor to stick with them. I thought that was odd, of course. They were making a good offer to anybody who would build."

"Who finally got the deal?"

"Um, Balino. Robert." She paused. "I'd also heard the name Miranda Akina pop up once - when Travis was talking about a new development."

* * *

><p>"We got Frank Wheeler as an accomplice," Kono announced as she and Danny came into the bullpen. "Seems Hoffman had a partner who did all the financial stuff for him, including hiring Morris."<p>

"We bring down both of them," Steve said determinedly. "We'll get one on the hook, make him sell out the other."

"Hoffman fits Billie's description," Danny replied. "When I met him, he had the posh shoes, the expensive clothes, the ring." He paused. "Compared to her father, Billie would consider Hoffman fat."

"Right-handed?" Chin asked.

"I saw him hand something to the waitress with his right hand. Talked to Stan. He can't be sure, but he remembers Hoffman signing things with his right hand."

"Speaking of Stan - you arrange police protection show up at your ex's?" Steve asked as he came out of the office.

"Yeah. Rachel doesn't like being restricted, but she'll have to suck it up."

"So considerate," Chin chuckled, and Danny just grinned. "What else did you guys find?"

"Not much beyond the names Livy Holden gave to us and the names Lonoehu pulled off the accounts. Some contractors went to Hoffman privately for permits and that sort of thing, and they said he's got a price for everything - they'd agreed to a price, and then he'd jack it up," Kono replied as she pulled up a chair, helping Danny to distribute the food.

"It's what Stan said," Danny added.

"Some of the other contractors said they kept getting frozen out during certain bidding wars - especially on lucrative contracts, and they couldn't figure out why," Kono finished. "Miranda Akina said she got stalled out repeatedly, and that's why it took so long to start on that housing development for the PD."

"Everything else was similar. Seems everybody thought he was the only one facing Hoffman's corruption, so nobody did anything," Steve concluded.

"Except Stan," Chin commented, looking at Danny.

"Except Step-Stan," Danny agreed. "That man's either brave or stupid."

"I'm guessing you're leaning towards stupid," Chin commented with a chuckle, pointing a French fry at Danny.

"Right in one." Danny grinned.

"So why don't we arrest Hoffman now?" Kono asked.

"We can get him on corruption, but we need more for murder," Chin replied. "A lost Gucci insignia and an Italian silk fiber just mean that he was at the house, and Charlie hasn't processed the shoes or the gun yet."

"That, and Hoffman's not going to give us a DNA sample to match against the swabs from Holden's fists," Danny added as he stuffed another fry in his mouth.

"We know he's capable of violence," Steve replied. "Carjacking a woman and a child? He's capable of violence. I don't think shooting a father would go to far for him."

"His lawyer will argue that he didn't have anything to do with that carjacking, and the lawyers for the two thugs will point out that they didn't take Rachel's purse or harm Grace or Rachel during the carjacking," Danny replied somberly. "The gun's no use. Right now all we have are shoes tied to him. We need DNA."

"Or we need him to do something stupid," Steve replied. "McGarrett. Hey. Yeah, I'll be right over."

* * *

><p>"I got in touch with some labs on the mainland," Charlie replied as Steve and Danny came in. "I think I can get around the missing barrel problem."<p>

"Don't you need it to do ballistics tests?"

"No." He paused. "What I've got is good, very good, but this alone won't convict anybody. At the twin looks he was given, he held up his hands. "I just want to be clear. This will help, but it won't convict. There are some challenges being mounted to this methodology."

"But if we have other evidence we'll be good."

Charlie nodded.

"All right. Tell us what this is," Steve replied, leaning forward with interest.

Charlie turned to his computer and called up an image. "See these two images?"

"Yeah? So?" Steve shrugged.

"They're chemical fingerprints. In an earlier case, the killer took the barrel off the frame of gun so that barrel couldn't be used in ballistics tests to match the bullets. Their lab tried a new format - using a nuclear reactor, they got the chemical fingerprint of each bullet. Each batch of bullets is slightly different in the amount of things which go into it - it's like, you know, your mom's casserole."

"Don't diss the casserole," Danny commented with a grin.

Charlie smiled. "I can match the chemical fingerprint of the bullet we pulled out of Holden to any batch you get me, and if they match, we're good. I'm working on the bullets from the cartridge still in the sawn-off Glock."

"If the bullet from Holden matches the bullets in this gun grip, we know they came from the same group," Steve asked for confirmation. "Then all we'd have to do is tie these bullets to Hoffman - like, find the rest of the batch in his house."

"That's right." Charlie nodded.

"Anything on the shoes?" Steve nodded at the pair on the table.

"The shoes match the cast we made," Charlie informed them, holding up the shoe and the cast. "The wearer certainly has supination, as well."

"Did you find blood?"

"I did." Charlie flicked off the lights and then turned on his evidence light. As he brought the shoe up to the light, spots became illuminated in a blue flourescence.

"There's even some on the laces," Steve murmured, touching the lace with a latex-gloved finger.

"That was the best preserved. Your killer didn't apply cleaner there and the shoe polish applied later totally missed it."

"The spots of blood seem heavier near the toe," Danny commented.

"Blood splatter pattern goes from the toe" Charlie indicated where most of the spots were "towards the back."

"Most likely from where the body fell," Steve mused. "The victim was upright when he was shot."

"Get me the clothes he wore when Holden was killed, and I can give you a full-body pattern of the shot," Charlie offered.

"The blood's Holden's?"

"The DNA's still running, but blood type matches," Charlie confirmed. "Don't see why the DNA won't match. I'll call when I get something."

* * *

><p>"What are you doing?" The housekeeper ran through the foyer, towards the door. "You cannot come in here!"<p>

"Five-0," Kono replied, showing her a badge as she looked around the large, elegant house. "Search warrant for the Hoffman home," she continued as Chin directed a unit into the downstairs of the basement.

"Upstairs," Chin replied, directing an HPD group straight up the stairs. "Every inch. Don't miss anything."

He led his cousin up the stairs and both began searching through the closets.

"Any Italian silk green?"

"Nope. I've got Italian silk, but not the green we're looking for."

Chin whistled as he opened up the closet, revealing a large rack of mostly expensive shoes of different styles and a few different colors. "Here we go. Shoes."

"He's like a woman," Kono muttered as her cousin grinned. She pointed at the different pairs of rather light-catching pairs. "He's got a fondness for shiny ones."

Chin reached in and grabbed a pair. "Ermenegildo Zegna. Almost seven hundred dollars, this one."

"The clerk said he liked Italian shoes," Kono commented. "How do you know your shoes so well?"

"Like I said - the best front is a true understanding of the product." Chin flipped them over and showed his cousin the soles.

"What are you looking for?"

Whatever Charlie called it."

"Supination," Kono replied, coming over to look. She ran a finger along the sole of the Zegna shoes. "Significant wear along the outer edges as compared to the inner," she murmured. "The wear patterns match the ones in the cast Charlie made as well as the shoes we found."

Chin held out the pair to his cousin. "Bag 'em all."

* * *

><p>"Hello! And how can I help you gentlemen," Hoffman greeted as he came into his office, his smile faltering as the noticed the two men in front of him, both of whom were smiling - rather broadly, too.<p>

"Bruce Hoffman, right?" Steve greeted in an over friendly manner. "I'm Steve McGarrett, with Five-0. And I think you already know Detective Danny Williams."

Danny gave an amused, side smile as Hoffman paled slightly, and his expression fell for just a second before his mask was back up. "And how can I help you gentlemen?" Hoffman repeated as he sat down in his chair, trying to remain as calm as possible.

Danny slapped the faxed sheet of numbers down on his desk, now complete with names of different contractors on it. "Giving contracts to contractors who pay your bribes, even in bidding wars." He put down another sheet. "Your price list for all the things the contractors have to pay for." He put down three at one time. "Records of that money going in to your account in Singapore, and then from there to Frank Wheeler."

"Holden got a little too close, didn't he," Steve said, leaning down so they were eye to eye, the former Navy man a smirk on his face. "He found this all out, so you had to stop him."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Hey Danny, look." Steve picked up one of Hoffman's hands and slapped it down. "This ring look familiar?"

"Sounds like the description Billie gave," Danny replied.

"It's a wedding ring. A lot of people have them. I haven't done anything wrong by wearing one."

"So you won't mind giving us a sample of your DNA," Steve said, straightening. "Since you're innocent and all."

"I know how these things work," Hoffman replied, with a practiced roll of his eyes. "You make the DNA say whatever it wants to say, and you lock up innocent people."

"Actually, evidence doesn't lie, so if you're innocent, you'll be cleared," Danny shrugged. "Unless you're not innocent."

"I'm not giving you my DNA."

"Does that sound guilty to you?" Steve asked, his arms crossed.

"Yup." Danny pinned him with a stare. "Since we know he has a penchant for protecting his interests."

"You can talk to my lawyer. I don't like your insinuations."

"Call him," Danny offered. "He's going to insinuate plenty." He gathered up the sheets.

Steve just looked at the other man, his arms crossed, a half-smirk on his face. "She's going to nail you in court. Brought down by a child," he replied, his expression amused.

"As cute as Miss Holden is," Hoffman replied, "she is only three."

"A three-year-old who notices everything, as we've found out. And who can identify the man who threatened her father and her." Steve gave him a nod of good-bye. "See you in court."

_TBC_


	10. Chapter 10

**Ho'ike**  
>by Sammie<p>

All notes in first part.

This is the last chapter! Thank you to everybody who read this far and took the time to review also. Enjoy.

* * *

><p>"Sir." Chin looked up from the living room, where a member of the crime scene unit came by with a box. "We found the batch of bullets. Some are already missing."<p>

"Get it over to Fong right away," Chin instructed, and the officer nodded. "Did you find a gun barrel?"

"No, sir."

Chin and Kono exchanged looks, and the former murmured, "Pray very hard that this batch of bullets matches with the ones from the gun grip and the one pulled from Holden."

Kono nodded. "Especially since we don't have an Italian silk green shirt around here."

"He must've gotten rid of it," Chin commented, looking around. He frowned as he looked towards the fireplace, then crossed the room and stooped down. He put his hand down and brought it up, rubbing his index and middle fingers against his thumb. "Ash. A lot of it."

"He must have had a fire going at some point," Kono replied, frowning at the thought.

"Fire in summer in Hawaii sounds pretty suspicious to me," Chin muttered, then called in the housekeeper. "Ma'am, there are ashes in the fireplace. Did you run a fire?"

"You crazy? Too hot for fire."

Kono studied the housekeeper for a moment. "Does Mr. Hoffman normally have fires in his fireplace?"

"No. Never. I clean fireplace two weeks ago, last time I here." The housekeeper leaned in towards her to whisper, as if sharing an embarrassing secret. "Full of dust, spiders."

Kono exchanged a look with her cousin, who got a trace smile on his face and nodded. "Thank you, ma'am." She turned to her cousin as the housekeeper left. "He doesn't like fires, but recently he set one in his fireplace," she commented softly. "For the shirt and pants?"

"Most likely." Chin looked over the fireplace.

"Why didn't he burn the shoes with it?"

"The other materials in the shoe might make an odor, draw attention," the older cop replied. "Let's see if there's anything left."

Chin looked around the fireplace, then slowly stooped down. He suddenly saw something and started to reach over for the set of fireplace pokers, then flipped one upward by the handle, holding the pointed edge out to Kono, whose lips slowly turned up in a big smile. She plucked off the tiny scrap of green cloth and popped it into an evidence bag.

* * *

><p>"I've stepped up security around the Holdens," Steve said, hanging up his phone. "We'll just have to wait for Hoffman to make a move."<p>

"I just thought of something." Danny looked around, then leaned in for a private conference with his partner. "Hoffman's obviously old enough to give blood," he said in a low, barely audible voice.

"Blood tests are private, Danny," Steve replied. "How would we get around that?"

"Legally," Danny said sharply, his tone belied by his grin. "And I got a legal method. Blood tests are private, but blood donation isn't," Danny pointed out, his grin widening. "Once they donate that blood, it becomes public property."

Steve straightened, pondering that thought before grinning. "Look at you."

"If anybody needed blood, and he was a match, the blood bank would have to give it to him," Danny continued. "We don't want to know what diseases or stuff he's had - we just want the blood."

"And a 'charitable' guy like that?" Steve grinned. "He's no doubt donated blood before."

* * *

><p>Chin met them at the door to Charlie Fong's lab the minute they entered. "We got a problem."<p>

"Let me drop this off first," Danny replied, putting down two tubes of blood. "Charlie. Bruce Hoffman's blood and Frank Wheeler's blood."

Chin blinked in surprise, looking up from his work. "We're sure?"

"Oh, we're sure," Danny grinned.

From behind the other man, Fong grinned. "Sounds good."

"Do I want to know how you got that?" Chin asked.

"Chin," Danny said in a tut-tut voice. "It's me. I know police procedure. He" he jerked his thumb over his shoulder at Steve "might be a cop in Lala Land, but I do things by the book."

Chin grinned at that, nodding in acknowledgment, even as Steve gave them both a full-fledged aneurysm face.

"Who's that?" Danny asked, nodding at the big, burly HPD officer in the corner of the lab.

"Officer Staunton," Chin replied. "He's Fong's escort when he leaves the lab, at least until we get Hoffman under wraps."

"I don't think this is necessary," Fong commented. Given Chin's expression, apparently this wasn't the first time Fong had said this.

"It is now," Kono replied shortly, coming into the lab. "Livy Holden just called. Her HPD guards just moved her and Billie, because they saw people come in who were suspicious."

"Could Billie identify any of them?"

"No."

"Hoffman's running scared," Danny groaned softly, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"You get Stan on the phone. Tell him and his detail what's going on," Steve instructed as he started to leave the lab, his team members hurrying after him.

"What are we going to do about Livy and Billie?" Kono asked.

Steve grinned as he sprinted towards the car. "Let's give 'em something to catch."

* * *

><p>"You'll be fine, Mrs. Holden," Chin offered as he handed Livy Holden into the helicopter. "You'll fly out from from Hilo International Airport to Los Angeles."<p>

Danny lifted the three-year-old into the helicopter and climbed in after her, buckling her up and tucking her arms securely into her arms. "You OK, Billie?"

"Uh-huh." Billie reached up and gave him a hug. "Bye-bye, Uncle Danny."

"You be good, squirt." He shut the door to the helicopter, then came around the other side.

"Thank you, Mr. Kelly," Livy Holden said, her voice trembling ever so slightly as she shook his hand. "Thank you, Detective Williams." She shook the other man's hand.

Chin nodded with a smile as he shut her door and he and Danny stepped away. The blades began to rotate, and the pilot threw a thumbs up as he slowly lifted off.

Chin waved at the departing helicopter for several minutes continuous before Danny leaned in, surreptitiously looking arond him before whispering, "They're gone."

* * *

><p>The helicopter landed at the Hilo International Airport's helipad, and men ran onto the tarmac. The men swarmed the plane, and the pilot's door was yanked open. One of the men stuck a gun into the pilot's face. "Get out."<p>

"You're not lookin' to hijack me, are ya?" came a laidback, Texan drawl.

"Shut up and get out." The man suddenly blinked when he saw his partner open the back door for the passengers, only to see his eyes wide, focused on the barrel of the shotgun pointed at him. He himself turned back to find a pistol pointed right in his face, the pilot's helmet and headset off, and a very angry cop in its place.

"Get on the ground," Steve bit out, his normal accent back.

The man slowly lowered his gun and lay down face-down on the ground, while Danny came in, followed by Hawaii County police department cars.

The door behind Steve suddenly flew open wider, and a body came flying out, knocking one of the attempted attackers to the ground, followed by a hard right hook to the jaw to knock him out and then and a flurry of fists.

"She's a child! She's a little girl! What kind of animals are you!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Chin muttered, quickly releasing his suspect to to a Hawaii County officer and then pulling back a furious Livy Holden. Her knuckles were bruised and red with blood from the nose of the failed kidnapper. Pulled backwards by the cop, she lashed out one more time, swiftly hitting the downed man with a well-aimed kick right where it counted. As he curled into a ball, moaning, she hissed, "That was for Billie."

Chin pulled her back, putting her behind him, then looked down with disgust at the man on the ground. "Get up," he bit out.

* * *

><p>"Where're we goin', Auntie Kono?" Billie looked out of the backseat window of Kono's car, her stuffed toys sitting cheerfully in her lap.<p>

"We're going to - we're going back to my office, OK? Just 'til your mommie gets back with Uncle Steve and Uncle Chin and Uncle Danny."

"Can I rides in a hel'cop'er?"

"You didn't like your little ride?"

"Want a longer one."

Kono and the HPD cop sitting shotgun both chuckled. "Perhaps some other day."

"'K." The little girl talked to herself in the backseat, commenting on random things as they drove past. Kono smiled at her in the rearview mirror, then focused on the road.

After ten minutes, she felt a hand on her arm. She looked over to her right, where the protective escort for the Holdens sat. Aneko's eyes flickered to the rearview mirror, then to hers. 'Billie', he mouthed.

Kono tuned in to the child's commentary, listening for a few minutes. "Billie? What did you say?"

"Dere's the black car again," the child repeated.

Kono exchanged tense looks with Aneko. "Are you sure it's the same car, honey?" she asked.

"'Fink so," Billie said cheerfully. "'S got a white line on a door."

"Don't look," Aneko warned, then carefully turned adn brought up a small pair of military binoculars to look at the black car near them. "There's a long scratch on the back right door, like somebody ran a key on it."

"Where did you think you saw the car before, hon?"

"At the big house."

"At the hotel?"

"Uh-huh."

"Where'd you see it at the hotel?" Aneko asked.

"When I looked out the 'indow."

Kono took a deep breath, then carefully began to accelerate, ever so slowly. She passed a few cars, making two lane changes to do so. She settled back into the right lane, carefully eyeing the road signs for the upcoming exits. 'Please, let us just make it to the exit,' she prayed.

"He knows we're on to him," Aneko commented, just a minute before the black town car suddenly veered up to the lane next to them, and suddenly jerked right. Kono shouted as she floored the pedal, shooting forward. The car still caught her trunk, pushing it towards the right and thus turning the front towards the left, jerking her car around into a spin. "They're certainly after us!" She twisted the wheel against the spin, forcing the car back into a forward motion. In the back, Billie whimpered in fear.

"Left!"

Kono jerked the wheel to the left, passing a car and then speeding up before jumping into the right lane again. "He still behind us?"

"Oh, yeah!" Aneko tore the radio transmitter off its spot on the dash. "This is Officer Aneko," he radioed. "We're on Ala Moana Boulevard, and we're being chased by a black" he paused "town car. Lincoln, I believe."

"Can't trust a guy who doesn't drive a Chevy!" Kono shouted over the din of honking cars and screeching brakes, the police radio, and the scream of her own wheels on the payment as she made another sharp turn.

"Start heading back to headquarters!" Aneko shouted, one hand gripping the passenger handle above her door and pointing across the windshield to Kono's left. "That way! That way! Take that turnaround. Let's see if we can't get this one trapped."

Kono started to turn into the turn around, then suddenly jerked up her handbrake. The car fishtailed, the front wheels staying in place as the back whipped around, now turned in the opposite direction. She floored the gas pedal. Behind her, the town car started to brake to make the turn.

"There, there!" Aneko pointed towards a residential street, and Kono quickly turned into the unlit street. The officer was nearly pulling her and Billie out of the car, pointing down towards the end of the street. "Head in a straight line. The street dead ends, and if you pass between the two middle houses of the dead end, you'll see the back of HPD headquarters. Go, go!"

Kono scooped Billie into her arms as Aneko climbed into the driver's seat, a devious, feral grin on his face. "I'll see if I can lead them away." He gave her a mock salute as he floored the gas pedal and took off.

* * *

><p>"Who hired you?" Steve shouted in the makeshift interrogation room at the helicopter landing site.<p>

"Look, we were just told to scare - scare her a bit," the man exclaimed from his chair. "We weren't supposed to do nothing more."

"You don't start giving me some names, and I'm going to let that mother back in here, and I'm going to turn off the cameras," Chin snapped. "Give us a name."

"Look, I don't have a name," the man exclaimed. "He had a - deep voice. Promised ten grand for it, and put one thousand in my bank account as a deposit."

Chin clicked through his phone, then played a voice recording of Wheeler's voice.

"Yeah, that's the guy who hired me." The man nodded.

"Where is he right now? And where's Bruce Hoffman?"

"How should I know?"

* * *

><p>"Max, I need help." Kono burst into his morgue, Billie in her arms. "You - "<p>

"You have a deep wound," Max interrupted, his eyes drifting from the blood on her clothes to its source, a deep gash on her forearm. It had been wrapped clumsily and was bleeding, the cloth sticking to the wound; she was nursing it against her side, Billie tucked securely in her other arm. He quickly whirled around, going to his desk for gloves.

"Max, not right now. You have to hide me."

"But your - "

"Hide, first!" she snapped, turning back and forth, searching the room desperately.

He blinked, panic on his face. "Where?"

"I don't know where." Her eyes scanned the area desperately. She quickly set Billie down, then suddenly turned back to the ME with an excited look. "What were you doing with the body - the one with sarin, the one we brought in when Danny was sick?"

"It was an infectious autopsy. I - "

"You lock down the morgue," Kono finished. "Nobody in or out until you've decontaminated everything."

"Well, yes, but - "

"Good. You've got an infectious autopsy." Kono herded him over to the controls. "Get your gear on. Which button for infectious autopsy?"

"Far right."

Kono quickly slapped it, and outside, a warning light went on. "Whoever shows up, unless it's Lukela or 5-0, tell them you have an infectious autopsy. Get your gear on."

Bergman quickly obeyed, but he turned to Kono, deeply distressed. "I don't lie well."

Kono swore colorfully, then quickly took a pan and started dumping chemicals. It bubbled and fizzled, and she quickly dumped some more chemicals inside, then handed the bowl to him. "If they ask, show them this. Stomach liquids."

Max looked at the bowl doubtfully.

"Max!" Kono grabbed his chin, jerking his face up from its gaze on the bowl to her face. "Listen to me. This is for your protection. They find out you helped me, they'll shoot you through that glass door. If they think there's an infectious autopsy, they won't shoot; they won't risk letting those germs out and infecting themselves.

She looked around quickly. Each spot was visible to somebody standing at the glass doors to the autopsy room, except for - "Do you have any body trays that are empty?"

"Yes. I only have bodies in trays four and eleven."

"They clean?"

"Oh, yes."

Kono quickly yanked out the bottom body tray in the far corner. She looked around wildly, her eyes settling on the far corner in the autopsy room, with a fire extinguisher hanging from the wall and an aluminum-coated fire blanket next to it. She ran over, yanking the blanket off the wall and out of its bag before rushing back to the child. She gathered Billie over. "Billie, honey, close your eyes for Auntie Kono, OK? We're going to hide for a little bit."

"OK." She obediently closed her eyes.

"Stay very quiet." Kono wrapped her tightly in the blanket, then lay her on the tray before climbing onto it herself and lying down on her right side, facing the wall. Max came over to push her inside. "Max. Leave the door open a tiny crack." She reached her hand over her head, looking out at him from inside the body locker. She gripped his hand, giving him a grateful smile. "Thank you."

Max nodded, then shut the door.

* * *

><p>Rachel Edwards smiled at the older man as she came up to the restaurant bar, holding an empty shot glass. "Frank Wheeler, isn't it?"<p>

"Yes," he greeted as he turned on the bar stool. "Mrs. Edwards?"

"You've got a great memory," she greeted with a genial, if tipsy, smile. "Rachel, please. I thought I recognized you. Do you mind if I join you?"

"Please." The man smiled and indicated the stool next to him. "What brings you here?"

"Oh, well." She laughed lightly, then gestured, her movements exaggerated. "Stan's working, and my daughter's asleep." She leaned towards him to whisper, but the volume came up slightly louder than intended. "I managed to slip my guard for just a little time out on my own," she whispered, looking at him with slightly glassy eyes but an earnest expression on her face. "It's a bit smothering."

"A guard?" Wheeler asked, frowning.

She looked around, as if not wanting others to hear, and said, "My husband got into some bad deals with somebody," she said, and didn't appear to notice when Wheeler paled and his eyes widened slightly. "And now we all have to suffer until they catch this guy."

"Catch...him?"

"Oh, yeah." She waved dismissively. "Oh, they'll get him. My ex-husband's like a dog with a bone when it comes to this."

"They...can certainly catch this man, huh?" Wheeler looked ill.

Rachel chuckled mirthlessly. "Show no mercy," she joked, waving for the bartender to pour her another shot.

"Rachel, what the h-ll," came a snap as Danny came into view. "I told you - you know what," he said, waving in an exasperated fashion. "You never listen, do you."

"Daniel," Rachel replied in a barely controlled tone of irritation.

"I told you to stay in your room and with your guard," Danny snapped. "Do you listen? No, of course not. I tell you to stay put, and - "

"Bite me." Rachel glared.

Wheeler fidgeted. "I think I better go," he said.

"No, don't," Danny replied, standing up and holding up a hand to stay Wheeler's departure. "I'll be the one going. In fact, I've got some suspects to question."

"Finally," Rachel said sarcastically. "It's about time." She tossed back another shot.

"It's going to be a whole lot of fun." Danny said, a faint trace of a wild smile on his face. He looked rather impatient for his fun to begin. "When they give up whoever hired them to go after the kid - " he trailed off, a feral grin saying everything for him. He gave his wife another glare and departed.

Rachel heaved a sigh, and there was an awkward silence. "I'm sorry you had to see that," she said quietly. "My ex-husband is extremely protective of our daughter."

"As any parent would be," Wheeler acknowledged, swallowing.

"I think the murder of Travis Holden speaks to all of us," she said quietly, leaning towards Wheeler and speaking earnestly. She smiled. "People tend to be very unforgiving of those who threaten small children."

"Yes," Wheeler said quietly. "Yes."

"As they should be, of course." Rachel smiled. "I'm not saying that the life of an adult is more valuable than that of a child, but the innocence and the defenselessness - it's hard to forgive that."

Wheeler swallowed.

"I hope they catch whoever it is," Rachel said softly. "Though," she said with a smile, "I would hope that HPD does the arrest. My ex and his partner can have quite a creative streak when it comes to interrogation." She looked amused. "I pity the suspects they have now."

The banker looked nervous. "I'm very sorry, Mrs. Edwards, but I'm afraid I have to be going." He smiled weakly. "I've been here a while, already," he offered as explanation. "Enjoy your drink. Have one on me."

"Oh, thank you," Rachel smiled sweetly at him. "Pity you couldn't stay longer."

Wheeler nodded, laid the money down on the counter, and then started quickly going for the side door. He'd barely opened it before he stopped short, Steve McGarrett blocking his path, his arms crossed across his chest; Chin Ho Kelly stood at his side, his large shotgun pointed straight at Wheeler's chest. The banker turned back, just to see Rachel Edwards appear in the doorway, not drunk in the slightest, Danny Williams at her side.

"It was - it was just an act in there, wasn't it." He swallowed hard as Livy Holden stepped out of the darkened hallway. "It wasn't me."

"Why are you running?" Steve replied, in a tone which indicated he didn't believe a word of what Wheeler was saying.

Wheeler looked past McGarrett and Kelly towards the stunned widow. "Livy - Livy, it wasn't my idea."

"Your thugs gave you up," Danny retorted. "Said you paid them to go after the Holdens when they landed in Hilo, said you were the one who provided cash and directions to rent the champagne-colored SUV which showed up at the Holden house the night of the murder."

Wheeler looked from one stoically unforgiving face to another, then blurted desperately. "He made me go along with it!"

"Nobody makes you do anything," Steve replied tonelessly.

The banker looked nervously from one to the other before turning to Livy Holden again to plead his case. "Travis - Travis was digging into the land deeds and the land permits. He would've found out that some were fake, and he would have uncovered the bidding wars Hoffman was running."

"So you shot him," Chin replied.

"No! No. I wouldn't - I tried to talk to Travis. I wanted him to back off. He wouldn't." He watched in a panic as Livy Holden's face turned into one of horrified betrayal, and she unconsciously backed away from him. "Livy, I - by - by the time it got to Stan Edwards, and then to Travis, I was in too deep. Bruce made me hire those men for him! Hoffman told me he'd bring me down with him if I didn't help him. He said we had to make sure Billie didn't say anything. I didn't want to hire anybody to hurt her, but - Livy!" He called desperately after the retreating figure. "You've got to believe me!"

Danny slammed him against the wall. "I'm about to land you in a shallow grave," he hissed. "Tell us where your partner is."

* * *

><p>"Auntie Kono, you're squishing me."<p>

"I'm sorry," she whispered back, lightening her hold.

Kono lay on her side on the body tray, allowing her eyes just to fix on the wall in front of her. The body locker was dark and cold. At least the reflective barrier technology used in the fire blanket seemed to be working, radiating the heat back to the little body huddled in it. Billie had not yet complained about being cold, which was more than Kono could say for herself.

The rookie cop did not look behind her, staring resolutely at the wall of the body locker just a few feet from her face. She knew Max had bodies on the other trays behind her.

She could hear the voices outside, despite the sound being slightly muffled by the doors to the body locker. Still, with the silence in the morgue and the intercom connecting those standing on the outside to whomever was inside the morgue, she could make words out.

"Open up." The intercom crackled.

"The light indicates an infectious autopsy." That was Max.

A pause, then the crackling of the intercom again. "We know she's here, with the kid."

Hoffman. Kono clamped her hands over Billie's ears, but it was too late. The child began to shake. "It's all right, sweetheart," she whispered directly into Billie's ears. "I'm here."

"What's happening?" came her scared voice.

"Don't move until I say you can," Kono whispered. "Don't make a sound."

"Auntie Kono?"

"Be brave, sweetie. I'll be right here with you." Kono clamped her hands back down over the child's ears, then strained to hear the conversation.

x x x x x

Outside, Bergman looked at the three men on the other side of the closed autopsy door. He swallowed, then said as stoically and resolutely as he could muster, "Officer Kalakaua was here, but has gone, because of the infectious autopsy." He swallowed, then pointed to his headgear and his suit with one hand and the light outside the autopsy room with the other. "That light indicates nobody who is unprotected may be here, especially not a child."

"We want to look," Hoffman snapped.

"It is infectious."

"Just search with your flashlight." The third man looked around nervously. There were a few minutes of silence as Hoffman glared at Bergman, who simply stared straight back. "Look, the GPS on her iPhone is only accurate within a couple hundred feet," the third man continued. "She could be outside, or she could be above us."

"I doubt those cops would endanger a child by bringing her here if there's possibility of infection," said the man on Hoffman's other side.

"Fine. We'll check the rest of the building," Hoffman growled.

Hoffman turned to go and nearly smashed his face into the barrel of a short-barrelled shot gun. "Commissioner Hoffman," Chin replied shortly, flanked on either side by his two teammates.

Steve looked at Hoffman, a tiny, feral smile crossing his face as he crossed his arms. "Book 'im, Danno."

Danny smirked as he came around to Hoffman. "With pleasure," he commented as he clapped him on the shoulder. Hoffman winced as the cop clapped the cuffs on. "Too tight? Good."

* * *

><p>Lukela came running towards autopsy with a group of his men, just in time to see Hoffman being led away by a smirking Williams. Two of his officers took the two accomplices from McGarrett and Kelly.<p>

"How'd he get in?" Lukela asked.

"He's got a swipe card, government issue. He's can just swipe his card in the reader outside the HPD building; he's been entering from the back hall of autopsy for the last few years," Steve replied. "That's why we never saw him on the video of the bullpen."

"He made it up to the breakroom without passing the cameras," Lukela replied, shaking his head.

"He did sign in," Steve replied, holding up the list of people who had checked in to HPD. "But we looked at Lonoehu first."

"And Billie?" Lukela asked.

"She's with Kono and Officer Aneko," Steve replied. "Somewhere here, from what the guys tracking her GPS said."

Lukela frowned, looking at him, his expression instantly one of worry. "No. Aneko is here, but they were not. They were chased, and Aneko dropped them off and took her car and led their pursuers on a chase. We just arrested them at McCully Shopping Center."

Chin and Steve exchanged looks, and Steve was about to speak with his phone began to ring. He hit ignore. "Did Aneko say where he dropped them off?"

"The neighborhood right behind us."

"We'll sweep the neighborhood," Steve replied. "Blanket the place. We're looking for two people on foot. With Billie, Kono couldn't have gotten very far," he said as his phone began to ring again. He held it up, then answered it. "Max, this is not a good time." Silence as he listened to the voice on the other end. He hung up, then called after Lukela and Kelly, "Cancel that! She's here."

Chin and Lukela stopped, exchanging puzzled looks. "She's here in the building?" Lukela asked incredulously.

The three men ran towards autopsy, where Max met them in the hallway. "Let me turn off the light," he commented as he opened the door.

"Please tell me you don't actually have an infectious autopsy," Chin said, looking about in consternation.

"No, no. No infectious autopsy." Max quickly turned off the light. "Officer Kalakaua had me turn it on, so nobody would want to come to autopsy."

"Where are they?" Steve asked. Max pointed towards the last door in the body locker, the one on the bottom right. "You left them in there while you called us?" Steve asked incredulously.

"Oh." Max blinked, genuinely disturbed. "Oops."

Chin shook his head and opened the door as Steve bent down and gripped the handle on the tray before yanking it out.

The huddled figure lying on the body tray slowly moved from her position, lying on her side, and flipped onto her back, gently moving Billie in the same motion to rest on top of her. Kono grinned up at them, her lips a cold blue but her eyes twinkling. Chin just grinned, impressed and relieved.

Steve grinned down at her. "What's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?"

* * *

><p>They sat in the warmer bullpen, a blanket around Kono's shoulders. Billie sat on her mother's lap but watched her auntie Kono intently as Max carefully bandaged the cut in her arm. "You must go to the hospital," the ME said. "This is very bad."<p>

"How'd you get it?" Chin asked.

"Cut it going over the wall right behind the housing development, the one behind HPD," she replied. "The wire fence on top of the wall cut me up."

Danny appeared then, a few HPD officers with him, pushing Hoffman along. Hoffman refused to look at them as he passed by, but Billie suddenly sat up, pushing her mother away. She watched intently as he left the building and went out into the night.

Billie scrambled to stand up on the chair, still watching Hoffman. As he walked out of the building, he was illuminated by just the lights in the street. She kept looking at his hand. "He come-d to the house!"

Chin looked at Billie, then broke into a run, rushing out of the building towards Hoffman.

"You saw him?" Kono asked urgently. "You're sure you saw this man."

"He come-d to the house," Billie repeated as she looked out the window into the night. Outside, Danny and Chin were conversing, and the blond jerked Hoffman around to face the window, and Chin uncuffed him, forcing him to hold out his right hand with the ring on it.

"You're sure," Steve commented, looking at the little child's profile, even as she looked out of the window at the man.

"Uh-huh." She paused. "A shiny 'fing on his hand." She paused. "And shiny shoes."

"But the ring - that's what he was wearing."

Billie nodded. She was staring straight at the man's face, now, however, and she said with certainty, "He come-d to the house."

Steve leaned over, tossing a thumbs up sign to Chin and Danny, who turned Hoffman around and continued on their way. "It's all right, Billie. We've got him, now."

* * *

><p>The afternoon was overcast but cheerfully warm. The team headed over to the courthouse after lunch and arrived just in time to see Deputy Prosecutor Chen talking with Livy Holden outside in the hallway as they waited. Both rose to meet them.<p>

Chen greeted them, shaking their hands. "I think we've got a slam dunk conviction. Mr. Fong's lab work was excellent."

"We'll be sure to tell him." Kono smiled.

"And Billie?" Chin asked.

"On the recommendation of the HPD psychiatrist's evaluation, Judge Kamalei agreed to allow Billie's testimony, though the weight given to it may not be especially heavy, given her age," Chen explained. "Once he permitted her to testify, we petitioned for private testimony in the judge's chambers, not in open court. Hoffman's lawyers agreed."

"Of course," Danny snorted. "You haul that three-year-old up on the witness stand and the jury'll execute Hoffman themselves."

"She's testifying right now," Chen nodded. "Taking a bit longer than we anticipated. They should have been out ten minutes ago."

"Who's in there?"

"Kamalei, chief prosecutor Lana Kichida, and Hoffman's lawyers. Billie's seen Kichida several times already, and she's already had an orientation with Kamalei. She likes them both, but especially the judge."

"For a man with a reputation as a hanging judge, Kamalei looks like a sweet old grandfather," Kono commented, which got a smile out of the deputy prosecutor. "How did the contractors' testimonies go?"

"Mrs. Holden." Steve took her to the side as Chen continued to speak to the two cousins. Danny looked back at him, but Steve just waved them on, and Danny turned back to the conversation with the others. "I understand your in-laws want you to move back to the mainland with them after the trial," Steve commented.

Livy Holden nodded. "Yes, they do."

"You may want to consider it. Your husband was and you are too much of targets here, especially after all this." Olivia Holden said nothing, just watched him steadily. "Your daughter lost her father," Steve said. "I'd hate for her to lose her mother, too."

The door to the chambers opened, and out came the judge, his black robes flowing over him. He held the hand of his smallest witness, who was cheerfully trotting alongside of him, panda tucked under her free arm. She worse a pastel pink dress with a cheerful white sash across the middle, her hair up in her normal pigtails.

Steve smiled unconsciously, and he turned to look at Livy Holden, who was smiling as she watched her daughter come out. The judge turned her over to the 5-0. The little girl hugged Chin Ho and Danny and chattered away to them before wrapping her small arms around Kono's neck and giving her a kiss. The rookie cop responded in kind, smiling and conversing with the child.

The woman then set the child on the ground and crouched down next to her, pointing down towards their direction, and the little girl lit up and ran towards them. Her mother scooped her up, and the small child wrapped her arms around her neck and gave her a kiss before greeting Steve. "Hi, Uncle Steve."

"Hey, kiddo." He tugged one of her pigtails.

Livy Holden turned back to him, drawing herself up as she adjusted her daughter in her arms. "Thank you for your concern," she said, measuredly. "But I am finished running. I swore on Travis' grave that I would not become a victim, and that everything we worked so hard for wouldn't be taken from us." She smiled, her expression tired and pained but full of hope. "It's all I have left to give to Billie."

He looked at her steadily for a long time, then nodded, smiling.

END


End file.
